Young Justice
by Jennifer Scott
Summary: What would happen if the team had failed and the Reach had succeeded in taking over the Earth?
1. Chapter 1: A Stranger in the Night

Joan Hayes was in her bed looking at the night sky. Two years ago, she would have been able to see thousands of stars from her small little country home away from the city lights. Two years ago, the moon would have been as bright as the sun when it was full. Two years ago, there would have been wild dogs howling and the trees rustling in the wind.

Two years ago, the Reach weren't there.

The stars were gone, not visible throughout the smog cover that covered the earth because it was now a production planet for the Reach. The moon was a faint gray circle that could occasionally be seen, but it isn't as stunning as before with the Reach Chancellor living there. The wild dogs had starved to death or been killed by the Reach as they were a threat to their production means. The trees were still there, but they no longer danced in the wind, silenced with the rest of humanity by the Reach.

Joan looks at these upon indifference. At first, after the Justice League had fallen, she had been scared and had cried then. Her parents and younger brother were placed in charge of an hundred acre farm that was part of a larger plantation. At the time, Joan remembers bitterly her defiance which evolved into a full on fist fight with the Reach that had assigned them. She had done well, but after she was knocked down for the dozenth time, she spat in the Reach official's face. She doesn't remember anything after that. Her family says that the official hit her unconscious and she was lucky to be alive. But Joan didn't believe in luck. She was only alive because the official had allowed her to.

A bird flew to the windowsill, a little red bird which Joan knew naught the name of. Recently, it had become her only friend and only visited her at night. She opened the window just slightly and the bird fluttered in. Joan looked around and listened carefully to her silent house before daring to take out a match and light the candle that was strictly forbidden by the Reach as it might hurt their production. The bird hopped over to the candle and seemed to sigh. Joan smiled. The bird was not much bigger than her palm, yet looked more like a falcon than the usual sparrow that should have been its size. There were oranges, yellows and a few splashes of smoky black feathers over the eyes creating a mask. And for whatever reason, though pets were strictly forbidden, Joan was compulsed to feed this bird at night. Perhaps because in the darkness of her life, it made her smile.

"You know, if you aren't careful, then the Reach will find you," she whispered almost inaudibly.

The bird ruffled its feathers and seemed to glare.

"I know, you're too smart to get caught by them. After all, you have wings. You can fly away anywhere. You can escape to the trees and hide." Joan felt the familiar burn of the beginnings of tears in her eyes. "I can't escape and fly away. God, I wish I could. He knows I pray to Him every night to for wings just like yours so I can get out of here. I would give anything to get out of here." She wiped away the crystal water had almost leaked out from her eyes. The bird cocked its head and she knew it was listening. It always listened to her. "If I could get out of here, I would help others escape. I would help the very people who are fighting to bring down the Reach. You know, there have been rumors going around of a team across the world who are trying to send the reach away. I think they are calling themselves Young Justice because most of them are teenagers. The Reach say they don't exist, but rumors still get spread around. I guess they're right, though. After all, everyone needs a some hope. I guess that's all they are, hope. "

The bird blinked, assuring her that everything was alright. Joan was about to speak her gratitude when a light knock at the door startled her. She blew the candle out, and closed the window. She walked downstairs, knowing that if it was the Reach she would be punished for not sleeping. However, as of this moment, Joan needed a reason to get in a fight and take her anger out on someone else.

As she opened the back door, she expected something brutal, perhaps a punch in the face if the Reach were kind. She didn't expect a man standing before her in a black uniform with a blue v down his chest. He had blood dripping down the left side of his face and bruises covered every inch of visible skin and Joan imagined much more lay underneath the costume.

"Help me," he coughed before collapsing on her kitchen floor.

Joan dragged the man who looked a couple years older than her to the back of the house where he room was. She knew he was not Reach, but she did not quite understand why she was hiding him. Perhaps because he looked like someone part of the League even though everyone knew that the League was gone now. He was a memory of a time past, a time before the Reach. Perhaps that was the reason she hid him as if he was secret treasure.

She tiptoed to the bathroom where as quietly as she could, she got a tall glass of water and a towel wet under the sink. Back in her room on her bed, was the stranger. She slowly, methodically, began to wipe the blood off of his face. It wasn't as bad as she had thought, but she still knew he would need stitches from her own experiences. With a feeling of knowing that he couldn't be brought to a doctor, she found a needle from her mother's sewing kit and thread. Feeling her stomach turn with every stitch, she carefully knit together the man forehead. She was grateful that he didn't need many. She snuck a package of frozen peas from the freezer and rested it on his bruises, only long enough to bring some of the swelling down. By the time the peas were little more than mush, she put them back in the freezer, hoping they would be solid again later.

When she came back, the man was slowly coming to. His eyelids flickered slowly, dreamily. His eyes were hazy as if trying to recall a pleasant dream or trying to escape a nightmare. He turned his when he heard her quiet footfalls and focused in on her.

"You shouldn't have helped me." His voice was still hoarse.

"You came to my door. What was I supposed to do? Throw you out? The Reach would find you before you got a quarter mile. We both know the rules. No leaving the home after dark."

The man chuckled a bit, but started coughing again. Once he stopped, his voice seemed a little more solid. "Thank you, but I must leave before they catch your family-"

"Nonsense. You are staying here until you can at least stand on your own."

"I can stand..." The man fell back to the bed after trying to simply sit up. Hime being irked was an understatement. "Nevermind..." he growled.

"It's okay. I won't give you away. Just stay in here and rest so you can get better." She helped him sip the water. "My name is Joan, by the way."

He took a while to respond, but before he closed his eyes to a fitful sleep, he whispered something.

"You... you should call me Nightwing."

* * *

**Author's Note: Well, what do you think? I kind of had this crazy idea of what if the team fail and the Reach took over? This is what resulted. Please read it to the end and review!**


	2. Chapter 2: His Explanation

The next morning, Joan woke with a start. Her breathing was heavy and sweat was pouring down her body. Her eyes were wide as the memories of the nightmare of Black Beetle, the Reach's enforcer, came towards her. He had raised his arm which had changed into a weapon. He had smiled, then moved his arm and fired at her younger brother. Or so she assumed. She woke up before that happened. Now her heart was pounding faster than a stampede. She sent up a prayer that that would never happen.

She slowly sat up, groaning from sleeping on the floor. She hadn't meant to do it, but after NIghtwing passed out on her bed, she wasn't in much of the mood to move him, so she sucked it up. Now she was debating if she regretted that decision or not. She looked up on the desk where her alarm clock was sitting. It was 6:30. Shoot, she'd overslept.

Joan looked at Nightwing to make sure he was out, before sighing and changing. She had to do it quickly because any moment now, her parents would come make sure that she up and drag her out of bed if she wasn't. She pulled over her legs her worn out jeans and her shirt over her head when a knock came from behind the door. Her father was knocking on her brother's door. He would be getting up to go to the Reach school where he would learn everything there was no know about operating a Reach food production farm. Joan sighed, glad that she had not been thought to have enough intelligence for that. Punching the director's face might have helped that conclusion though.

She opened the door just wide enough for her to sneak out to come face to face with her father. He was a tall strong man with dark hair and dark eyes. He would be imposing and frightening if Joan didn't know how he was nothing more than a giant teddy bear and couldn't hurt a thing. He was surprised that she had opened the door in time. His hand had been raised. He smiled though.

"Hey, you're up. Why don't you come down for breakfast? We have fresh eggs."

Joan's mouth watered. It had been months since they had last had any fresh food. To the Reach, it was considered a waste of food to give the people fresh food when it could be sent to their own elsewhere. However, occasionally, someone would get something from the black market. It was one of the few things most people didn't question when they were given it. The neighbors had an honor system to share everything, even if it was only an egg per household. But was Joan came down and saw a practical feast before her eyes, she knew this was much more than a simple black market trade, the closest her parents had ever came to being a criminal. She knew, though it was nothing more than a feeling inside of her, that they had so many eggs because Nightwing was here. He must have friends waiting for him to get better and doing everything they could to ensure his health.

"H.. how?" Her brother, who had wandered down with his dark hair still messy and dark eyes still sleepy, was now almost drooling at the sight of so many eggs. There were several eggs all divided up into bunches of six. Six eggs per household. A miracle here. Joan wondered if anyone would get suspicious.

"They were on the back porch," Joan's mother said. Like Joan, she had long blonde hair with blue eyes. She looked the part of a typical farmer's wife with her hair pulled back. In fact, Joan and her mother had begun to look so much alike, that it inspired Joan to cut her hair below her ears in a bob every time it grew to her shoulders. "They had a note that said to make sure he got some. I'm not sure who he is but if we pass these out to everyone, then we should had gotten them to him. It looks like one of our neighbors has real connections."

"Perhaps. Either way, it means it's our turn to spread the wealth among our neighbors. I'll go pass them out." Her father chuckled. "Everyone is going to think it's Christmas."

Joan smiled. It had been a two years since anyone had mentioned Christmas. The Reach had banned Christmas and all other holidays because all humans needed to work all the days. The only excuse for missing work was limp,in which case you were sent away. Joan never knew where though she had her suspicions; she only knew it was away. Or if you were really sick, like dying sick. Then you were sent away, but always came back by the end of the say. Everyone knew enough that pretending to be that sick meant never coming back from away.

"Joan, what did you do to you hair?" Her mother asked, bringing Joan out of thoughts of Christmas past and those hearty dinners. She missed eggnog the most, but her father's Christmas ham was something to really drool about.

"What do you mean? " Joan, concerned, went to the bathroom immediately which was just around the corner. There, she saw that her blonde hair now had red strands everywhere, making it look like she was now a strawberry blonde. She shook her head. It was real. It was particularly strawberry colored on the strands that framed her face, they had long since been bangs. She was baffled by the sudden change in her hair. It had been bleach blonde last night when went to bed.

"I'm taking it you don't know anymore than I do." Her mother walked in behind her, smiling.

Joan shook her head, wondering what strange phenomenon had occurred in the middle of the night. Had Nightwing done it? Or had her brother pranked her after she fell asleep and put more sticky powders in her hair like the day which would have been the first April Fool's since the Reach took over. He had been punished severely for it, as "jokes distracted to workers," but Joan had not minded at the time. She had always been curious what she would have looked like with electric blue hair. It was too bad it washed out the next day.

"Okay, well, Henry says he's innocent and after last time, I don't think he would do it again. Either way, wash your hair after breakfast and we'll see what happens. I'm going to scramble them, do you mind?"

"No. Hey, do you think I could take breakfast up in my room? I need to finish something up before heading out today."

Her mother sighed, but nodded. Joan felt bad because with life the way it was and everyone working until either dark or when the bell rings, whichever came first, there were few opportunities to have a meal like this one together. However, she also knew the punishment for not finishing work by the next day.

Joan felt bad about lying, and made up for it by helping her mother prepare the eggs and making sure the conversation didn't turn towards dark things. Everyone did their best to keep it light and happy, a skill that they had become good at over the last couple years. When her dad came home, he commented on what a beautiful family he had and how lucky he was to have it. He almost began to play chase with Henry as he had in previous years when he was younger, but the hour warning bell stopped him. They all had to be working before the bell rang again.

"Don't be late," her mother warned as Joan took her breakfast up. They both knew that the Reach did not tolerate tardiness well. Joan nodded and ran down the hallway to where her room was and thankfully Nightwing was still asleep. She ate a few mouthfuls of the eggs before setting the plate down, hoping he wouldn't notice the couple bites missing, and writing a quick not. Don't leave room. Breakfast on table. She hopped off and jumped into the shower, hoping that the situation with her hair was just a dye.

When she came out, she saw it was not. Though thoroughly confused, she left if be, deciding that it was not worth freaking out over as it would have been a couple years ago when she went was obsessed with her appearance. The Reach however had taken away the idea of self consciousness. Now, there was only one way to make an impression. Don't take it lying down.

She snuck back into her room and saw Nightwing wide awake. He was almost sitting up, but he was still leaning on the headboard of her bed. He was eagerly eating the eggs, with a half smile on his face. He didn't look as bad as last night, but he still look rough. In the light, Joan also saw his dark hair was shaggier than she thought last night. His eyes were what raptured her attention. They were a dark stormy blue which echoed all the hardships, trials, joy, and so much more of more than one lifetime in those eyes.

"Morning," she said as she walked in.

"How long-"

"Only through the night."

He groaned as he tried to sit straighter. "Sorry, but my memory is a little fuzzy. What happened last night?"

"You came to my door in the middle of the night. You said help me, then collapsed. I brought you up to my room where you've been hiding."

"You hid me? Do your parents know?"

"I thought it would be better if they didn't."

"Why?"

Joan looked down at her hands, unsure of how to explain the feeling inside her. It was definitely a tangled ball of knots. "I... I just knew."

"And?" He seemed to know that there was more to say.

Joan sighed. He was as bad as her brother who knew exactly what was going through her head. He had probably guessed already that she was hiding something in her room. She hoped he hadn't already sneaked in and saw her secret, her precious hope. "You... you reminded me of the Justice League. I was hoping you were a part of it. Or at least knew where they were."

The stranger chuckled quietly. "I am not part of the League. If I was, then I would have been captured when the Reach first took over. I don't know where they are."

"Oh." Joan silently turned away. "Then why are you wearing a costume? The Reach have decreed that everyone works for the sake of 'production'. What line of work could you possibly be in that the Reach would have you dress up in an highly armored suit? Tell me the truth or I'll turn you into the Reach myself." Joan turned back towards him, with all the accusation in her eyes.

The man sighed, deciding on whether or not he should tell the girl the truth. She had saved his life and seemed to have reasonable observational skills and great intuition even if she was a bit dramatic. Turn him into the Reach. That was an idea. Perhaps... he smiled. Yes, he believed she could. "I don't work for the Reach." She didn't gasp, almost surprising him, but he suspected that she had already figured that out. "I work for a covert team that fights all the enemies of Earth and humanity. I have working on this team since I was thirteen, eight years ago. I am now leader of that team. We are made up of mostly teenagers and a few older members of the League who managed to escape the Reach. Our mission is as of now to rid humanity of the Reach. We are called-"

"Young Justice." Joan breathed under her breath. The man nodded. She felt her heart fill with the hope she had prayed for every night. He was her hope again. She smiled, but before she could ask the man what she had been dying to ask for even since the Reach came, the ten minute until work bell came. She excused herself, telling him that he would have to stay in her room until she work something out. He nodded, understanding the position she had put herself in to protect him.

As Joan left the room, frantically trying to make it to report to work on time, she was oblivious to the burned spot and tiny pile of ashes on her desk where the little red bird had once been.


	3. Chapter 3: Friend at the Farm

Joan ran to work just in time. As she was putting her wrist, which had the Reach bracelet marker that had everything about her compressed into its memory, under the scanner, the Reach official in charge smiled and said, "Lucky you're fast, girl."

Joan smiled back, though more than a little concerned with the Reach smile. She looked around the building to see if anyone had been expecting her. No one had, of course, but as she wasn't the easiest to get along with during work and there wasn't any time outside of work, she was okay with that. She walked over to where she was stationed. Being eighteen, almost nineteen, she was old enough to work outside in the fields as her parents did most days. However, she was assigned inside the facility, washing fresh food everyday. The one thing she almost looked forwards to when the Reach first took over was doing something different every day as everyone did. But she was assigned washing duty everyday for the last two years.

Usually, she was on her own, or there was a man with gray hair and a wrinkled tortoise face every now and then. She loved talking to him; he was one of only people she could probably call a friend and not loudly badmouth the Reach to. He would always occupy the time by whispering stories of his childhood. They were often boring and meaningless, but they weren't the propaganda the Reach spread everywhere, so she enjoyed listening to them. They reminded her of a time past and of a hope for the future that never did seem to come.

But today, there was a boy next to her. He looked like he was sixteen and had dark hair cut short. His eyes were a light brown giving him a puppy dog complexion. He would be a change from what Joan was used to if he ever looked like talking. However, his sudden appearance frightened Joan as it most likely meant that the old man had died or been sent away.

"Hello," the boy said as she walked up. Though a completely innocent gesture, Joan saw more in that simple greeting than she would ever need to know. She placed her guard up, wary of the boy who spoke to her. She knew that he knew about the stranger called Nightwing. It might have been paranoia setting in, but she could not shake the feeling.

"Hey," she replied, setting down to work, hoping her brusque behavior would make him leave her alone and not ask questions.

"My name is Tim, by the way." He seemed eager to talk and 'get to know her'. Joan knew it had to be paranoia setting in as her immediate thoughts were that 'Tim' is a very nondescript name. She tried to shake off the feeling and pretend to be nice even if she couldn't really be so.

"I'm Joan." She thought about making up a name, but figured if this kid knew she had Nightwing after less than ten hours, then he probably knew more about her than she did.

"Nice to meet you, Joan." He went back to washing the eggs that had begun to get passed their way. Joan longed to sneak and take one. They had the Reach growth hormones, so though it looked large and plentiful, she knew that they either wouldn't taste good or it would make her more submissive than she could afford to be. She did kind of have a reputation of being the one to get into trouble. She swallowed her longing for a fresh egg when the boy glanced around and snuck a relatively small one into his pocket. He looked up at her and pressed a finger to his lips.

"That's illegal," Joan said. She wanted to take one and might have if the boy hadn't been here so she wasn't sure why she was thinking of ratting him out, especially when everyone knows that occasionally a product or two might disappear. And with everything the Reach produce, it would not be noticed.

"Well, I need to get fresh eggs somehow."

It all clicked inside Joan's head. This was the boy who had given her family a couple dozen eggs, a feast for anyone nowadays. This boy was a friend on Nightwing's. That was how he knew that she had him hidden away in her house. It made sense in hindsight. If Nightwing was the leader of Young Justice, he would have someone watching out for him. A sixteen year old boy seemed a little odd, but he had said that Young Justice was made up of mostly teenagers. Joan sighed in relief.

"How's he doing?" he whispered as he understood she got the message.

"He's pretty beat up, but I'm guessing that's the usual for him." Joan looked around to see of any Reach guards would be walking by. They were seen as a waste of energy by the Reach, but also needed in case of uprising. Thankfully, with only Joan and a boy washing eggs, they didn't look suspicious.

"Unfortunately. He can usually be convinced to stay behind, but he wouldn't this time."

"What was he searching for?"

Tim looked at her curiously. Joan nodded, showing him that she knew at the basics. "He was searching for a friend. Sorry, but I can't say more without his approval or at least without you joining."

"Okay. I assume you don't have somewhere to go back to. I mean, I've never seen you before and if you really are with him, then it doesn't sound like you guys would ever stay in one place for very long."

Tim smiled, then nodded. "I planned on hiding out here for a while, waiting for his signal that's he okay, and gathering intel on this production unit. Perhaps you can help. Why tomatoes and eggs? It seems like an unusual combination."

"Tomatoes grow well here and there used to be a couple big chicken farms in the area."

"I've been doing more of hit and run missions and don't understand the farms. Can you explain how the they work?"

"Basically," Joan tried not to sound patronizing. "we have a group of families that own several hundred acres. Together, we are assigned a couple of products to produce. In our case, it is tomatoes and eggs. While we 'own' the farms, we never set foot on the land. All we do is report here for the Reach to tell us what to do. There are seven families and about forty of us working here. The one good thing the Reach can do is have us operate on a skeleton crew."

"When the Reach first came here, did you hear about the 'additive?'"

Joan nodded. She remembered that when the additive was first introduced, everyone considered it a miracle. Farmers were happy because they could increase their prices. They would still receive the short end of the stick, with an increase of only a couple dollars and hour, however, it was something still incredible and a marvel to them. Joan had been just as excited as the rest of them. "It has been upgraded to what they are calling the 'protein.' It can be used in the crops and the livestock. It is also a relatively new discovery among the Reach. My brother learned about in during school. It works on humans, lowering their IQ and muscle abilities, but it is harmless on their own kind unlike before."

"You brother is at one of their schools? I didn't realize they had schools."

"He has a higher tolerance for the protein that most, so they decided they could use him. He is training to become a manager of one of the farms, most likely this one or in the surrounding area. He knows a lot about what the Reach are using. He can't change anything, but learning about is needed so that when he takes charge of a farm, he can fix things on his own without bothering the Reach officials. Supposedly, the idea is catching on."

Tim smiled and Joan was unsure if she liked the smile. "So he knows a lot about the Reach? Perhaps he could be useful to us. But first, I need to see Nightwing."


	4. Chapter 4: Returning Home

Tim and Joan had to wait until the work bell signaled for the end of work to ring before Joan could sneak him home. Tim watched her curiously. Unlike him, she had grown up here. Upon furthering talking, and asking a whole lot of the right questions, he had found out a lot about her such as wanting to be a professional runner and riding her horse every day after school before the Reach to the mare to be part of a horse farm. Smiling, Tim thanked Batman for teaching him how to ask such questions that Tim suspected that Joan wouldn't answer to a normal stranger. Batman had taught him a lot before disappearing. The League was gone, captured by the Reach, and it was assumed Batman was included, but Tim harbored hope in his heart. Batman was too smart for that. No, Batman was safe. There was no way his adopted father would have been captured by the Reach.

Yet a voice always spoke inside his head at the worst times telling him that he had thought the same thing of the other Leaguers and now they were gone.

Joan's voice brought him out of his thoughts as they came to her house. It was a single story farmhouse painted a pale yellow. Rather than use the white front door, Joan took him around back, muttering that only the Reach could use the front door. Tim was led to the back door, the stereotypical dutch doors that Tim thought only movie farms had. Joan opened one, and her family was not yet home.

"They are probably still cleaning up from working outside."

Time nodded, wondering where Nightwing was inside the house. He was about to ask when a boy of twelve years ran down the hallway to greet his sister. He skidded to a halt in much the same way Impulse would, only slower. He had dark hair and dark eyes that took in everything about the stranger immediately. He asked hesitantly, "Who's he?"

"He's a friend I've invited over for dinner," Joan said. Upon seeing his continued uncertainty, she added, "It's okay, Henry. Please be quiet and trust me on this."

Henry nodded, saying, "I want to know everything later. Particularly about the man in your room."

Tim almost laughed as Joan went beet red, realizing what that looked like to her brother. She began to stutter out that it wasn't what it looked like, but then two adults walked into the room through the door. Tim guessed they were her parents. The man looked like Henry, except bigger and stronger. He had strong arms and a strong body. Tim knew he was used to hard work even before the Reach came. The woman had long blond hair that reminded Tim of Cassy's hair but much lighter. She had green eyes that latched straight on to Tim. He felt uncomfortable by her gaze.

"Joan..." The woman said with a wary voice.

"It's okay, Mom, he's one of my friends from school," Henry chipped in. Tim sighed in relief. They boy knew how to keep quiet and throw in a convincing lie. "I asked him over for dinner and to stay the night. Is that okay?"

Henry's mom sighed and nodded, smiling. "Alright. What's your name?"

"Tim, ma'am." Tim wasn't sure why he felt nervous around this woman. She was imposing, but really? Had he seriously just called her 'ma'am?'

"No, ma'ams around here, Tim." He sighed in relief. "Where are your from?"

"A few towns over." Tim decided it was best to keep his lies to a minimum and ambiguous

"Well, then, let me get dinner started for five. That will be a change from usual, eh Luke?"

The man nodded. Time saw a sigh and a shudder of sorrow pass through the family and knew that something had happened to them before. He knew he should ask and find out, Batman would want that, but he also respected privacy. Henry walked up to him and asked if he wanted to see his room.

"Sure, Henry." Tim followed the boy up as Joan went over to help her parents with dinner.

Henry led Tim down the hall and into a room. It had light blue walls and a window over the bed. The closet was facing the toes of the bed, with the doors half open. There was a little desk tucked in a corner between the bed and the window. Tim noticed a burn mark on the desk but was distracted by seeing Nightwing on the bed.

He was hurt, but sat up with a look of surprise on his face. Tim was glad he was not as bad as he thought. It was no more than what Nightwing usually sustained on mission with the exception that this time had left him bedridden for the day and forced him to seek out a assistance from a non safehouse. Time ran over to him.

"What are you doing here, Robin?" Nightwing called him by his hero name.

"What do you mean what am I doing here? I here to save you." Tim was slightly baffled.

Nightwing smiled and was about to say more when Henry said he would leave so they could talk about what they need to. Nightwing thanked him and as soon as the door closed, he chuckled. "The kid ran in on me after he got home from school today. Didn't even bat an eye. All he wanted to know was how long I would be staying. Did you know he goes to a Reach school?"

Tim nodded. "Joan told me at the farm today. I was trying to see if there were any weak spots in the plant in order to get you out of here."

"Good plan, Tim." Nightwing leaned heavily on the headboard. Tim realized how serious Nightwing's injuries had to have been to to keep him here. "She's nice, you know."

"Who? Joan?"

Nightwing nodded. "She has good instincts, something that the Reach additive is slowly taking away."

"The additive isn't being used any more. It's been replaced with the 'protein.'"

Nightwing chuckled some more. "You have to give the Reach credit with using original names," he joked. "But I think we could use her. And her brother. Being on the inside, studying under the Reach puts him into a good position as a spy. What do you think?"

"I had a similar idea, but he looks only twelve. Are you sure? And I'm not sure Joan has any sort of real training. A real issue with the Reach, but nothing else."

"The choice would be completely up to the boy. However, against her wishes, I've looked around Joan's house. She was a track athlete before the Reach came. Her father was the football jock and her mom was a basketball star. She comes from a line of discipline. If she hasn't had any real training, then she has what it takes to train."

"What will her parents say when she mysteriously disappears to join a secret team called Young Justice. We're nothing more than rumors to everyone else. How will the Reach respond to her family? I was only there for one day and I got harassed more than freshman year hazing at high school."

Nightwing leaned his head back, deep in thought. "Where's the closest safehouse?"

"About one hundred fifty miles from here. Why?"

"We've had safehouses farther apart, but that's still a long ways away. If their children are willing to join Young Justice, then perhaps they would be willing to do their part. They might be willing to have their home be a safehouse. Do you think they seem like the type to help us?"

"I'm not sure. They are like everyone else on this planet. they are oppressed and want the Reach off Earth, but they are probably like everyone else. Too docile from the protein to actually be willing to do anything."

Nightwing opened his eyes and cocked his head. Tim had been too focused on Nightwing to pay attention to his surroundings. Batman would have scolded him, perhaps cuffing him on the head if it was in a serious situation, but Nightwing was different. And now Tim heard it too. It sounded like the family was arguing about something. It was not serious, though it was loud. Nightwing shook his head. "It's nothing, just a scuffle about... hair?"

Tim shrugged, unsure. His ears were not as acute as his brother's yet, but Tim had been assure that that would change. He was about to mention something when Joan came back into the room with a dire look on her face. Tim noticed her hair was had more red in it, slightly more fiery than the strawberry blond it had been a couple minutes earlier. He was distracted by Henry also coming in with the same expression. They barely got a hide out of their mouths before their parents walked straight into the room to catch Tim talking to Nightwing who was still in his costume.


	5. Chapter 5: A Safehouse for Strangers

"What the hell is going on here?!" A tall man shouted. Dick assumed that it was Joan's father; he didn't look that different from the boy in the old high school pictures with the exception that he had put on a whole lot of muscle since then. The man came charging towards him and Nightwing tried to coax his sore body away, but the pain was great. He had only managed to shuffle a inch or so when the man was nearly upon him. Dick closed his eyes, preparing for more pain.

However, before the man could get close enough to hurt Dick, Joan stood in the way, blocking her father. "STOP!" she shouted with power in her voice. He stopped before running into her, but Dick could see he was about to throw her out of the way.

"Joan, explain. Now," her mother said. Dick was reminded of his mother in this woman. Perhaps it was the way she seemed kind but had ferocity behind her.

"His name is Nightwing. He came to the house last night just after midnight. He had been beaten up badly. He needed help." Dick saw a tenderness in Joan that he admired. Yes, she would be a great addition to Young Justice if she joined. The team could use someone who knew when to be kind and when to stand up.

"Why didn't you give him to the Reach then to be fixed up? Or at least tell us?" Joan flinched at those words; Dick knew how much the accusation of a parent hurt. He had heard it a couple times from Bruce before he disappeared.

"Mom... Dad..." There was remorse in Joan's eyes. Dick looked closer at them. Had they always been golden? Or was that something new? "He's part of Young Justice, the team taking down the Reach. I didn't tell you because I was afraid that you would give him over. I couldn't let that happen. It... It would break me."

Dick saw anger grow in her father's eyes. He looked at Tim, then Dick then back at Joan. His eyes softened. No, Dick had been wrong. It wasn't anger in Joan's father's eyes. It was concern. Dick felt horrible, knowing he had caused this man a turmoil of emotions in this father's eyes. He opened his mouth and whispered, "Joan, promise me something. Did anything happen?"

Joan blushed at the suggestion, but responded coolly, "No. I would kill him before that happened."

Her father smiled, concern replaced with pride. Dick swallowed, making a mental note never to get to get on Joan's bad side. He turned to Dick with an expression that seemed as if he was taunting Dick. "Your name in Nightwing?"

"Yes, sir. Thank you for the kindness your daughter has shown me. You have raised her well." A little flattering couldn't hurt when his position was tentative enough as it was. He noticed Tim hadn't said anything, but perhaps that was for the best. Though his brother was generally a good hero and kid, he spoke his thoughts out loud when it wasn't the best timing.

Joan's dad smiled and offered his hand out. "My name is Matthias. You've met Joan and from the sound of it, Henry. This is my wife, Elizabeth. You are welcome to stay with us for now, but I want to know everything. How the war against the Reach is going and... if the family is okay with it, how we can help."

Dick nodded, shaking his hand. He was glad the man had offered help. They would definitely be a safehouse. However, Dick was unsure if he should be worried by how quickly the man had changed his attitude towards him. He hoped it had to do with the fact that Dick had hardly touched his daughter and not because of some mental condition. He tried to sit in a more comfortable position, thought it was hard with his aching bruises.

"How much do you know of Young Justice?" He decided to start with. He knew that there were rumors that always spread about the team, but he was unsure of how much the family had heard and how accurate the rumors were.

"A team of kids taking on the Reach. You sound sort of like Robin Hood and his band of merry men, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor in an allusional sense." Elizabeth had brought in chairs and the family sat down. Joan sat at the foot of her bed, making a face when her mom raised her eyebrows. Matthias was oblivious to all of this; he was too focused on this Young Justice.

"In a sense, I guess we are. However, we are much more. Our sole mission is to send the Reach away for good. We are doing that through a number of ways from stealing as you mentioned, hit and runs, and full out battles between the Reach and ourselves. We are constantly learning about the Reach technology and science. Tim here, while trying to rescue me, was also learning about what he could from the farms. If we take out enough farms, then the Reach have nothing to feed themselves or more importantly, their workers."

"Or they could simply kill the workers for not protecting their production. If they get you, they'll take it out on what will hurt you most. Innocents." Dick smiled. Matthias seemed to have a good sense of how the Reach operated.

"Perhaps. That is the reason we haven't gone after the production facilities too much yet. It is mostly hit and runs against Reach officials and operators. We are trying to involve outsiders as little as possible."

"What can we do to help you?" Matthias asked. A cough came from behind him from his wife. It reminded him that the rest of them were actually there and they needed a family decision. Dick almost laughed and Matthias sighed. He looked up pleadingly at his wife who sighed then nodded. Joan and Henry nodded eagerly as well.

"We need safehouses. A safehouse is basically so if a team member needs to hide out or lay low for a while they have a place to go. If a mission goes south as in my case, then we have a place to recuperate while waiting for a pick up. We don't have one close in the area so..."

Matthias remembered this time to look at his wife for approval. She nodded. "We'll be that safehouse then. What do we need to do?"


	6. Chapter 6: Children for the Reach

The Scientist was in her quarters, determining if she should go down to the lab where she worked. Inside lay the most precious possession which she would die to protect. It was magical watching it, however the window in her room also called her attention. The Earth lay below her and despite it being covered in a gray layer of smog, it was still contained true beauty in the Scientist's eyes. Its oceans were still a shimmering blue and the land masses was in some places a gemlike green and even the dirty browns still shone in the light of the star the planet orbited.

The Scientist shook her head. Since her discovery, she often found thoughts like this running through her head. They were unordinary and she was careful not to voice them out loud for fear of being thought incompetent. She decided that a quick look at her egg in the lab would calm and clear her mind. She hoped no one would be down there, though she doubted any would due to the earliness of her rising.

She navigated through the halls of the ship, ignoring the guards that patrolled. It was important to maintain her illusion of aloofness around them or else they would get ideas that they were equal with her which was far from the truth. She was the Head Scientist of the Earth Delegation, a role she had worked long and hard for and no one could compete with her. Besides, it did have its perks...

Down in the lab, she pressed a series of buttons and her egg came up from the floor. It was marvelous, a deep blue in color with swirls of green blending it all together. No one knew about it, not yet. It would be difficult to explain it was her's and more importantly, who the father was. She hoped that she would find the time to tell him before it hatched in a couple weeks. She knew it should be easy to tell him, but whenever he visited her, she found the words unable to come out. Was it because they had told no one of their mateship, not even their families? Or was it because she uncertain about even wanting to raise the child?

She knew that is would be seen as a great omen, having the child hatch during the New Year Festival of home. Her mate would be ecstatic, having an heir. She smiled. Though the both of them would be busy working most of the time, she knew that they would each take time out of their days to watch the child. Actually, after hearing the news, the hatching might be announced as a holiday for the human slaves in honor of the child.

"You are probably old enough for to determine your sex," she commented to herself. She knew the child could hear her, so she supposed she was talking to it. She began to set up small devices that would send a harmless energy wave through the egg to determine its sex. As she picked up her monitor, _he_ walked into the room. The Ambassador.

"Good morning, Scientist. You are awake early."

The Scientist stood in front of her egg, suddenly very anxious about anyone seeing it. "I had work to finish which required an early start." She turned around, hoping he hadn't seen the egg. The Ambassador came up to her and looked into her eyes. His orange eyes calmed the Scientist and she almost told him everything, but she bit her lip, the words choking in her throat.

"Is... is that what I think it is?" The Scientist sighed. He had seen it. He had seen her egg. Now she had to explain everything.

She took a deep breath, hoping that it would calm her. It did not, but she was required to tell her superior. "It is my egg." He looked at her with amazement in his eyes. He seemed confused, perhaps hurt was also in his eyes. She continued. "Correction... It is our egg." There she had told him. She had told her mate that he was now a father.

Then he did something that was very out of line for their standing ranks. He wrapped his arms around her and picked her up into the air. She let out a small shriek, but it quickly turned into laughter. For the first time since expelling the egg from her body, she felt a tiny shiver of joy at the idea of being mother. She wondered if it was because he had not been panicked by the thought.

"I suppose now we have to tell others about our mateship," he whispered in her ear as they gazed longingly at the egg. His arm had wrapped around her and she felt safe and comfortable, though she knew it would be difficult to explain to any of the crew who walked by the archway.

She looked up into his eyes. "I was about to run a test to determine the sex of our child. Would you like for me to run it now?"

The Ambassador looked right back into her eyes and smiled. He rested his head atop of hers. "Of course." He watched eagerly as she ran the test. It took a few minutes for the test to complete itself; the entire time of which the Scientist and the Ambassador waited for what felt like an eternity. When it finished, a small beeping announced the results.

"Twins. One boy, one girl."

The Ambassador stared at her incredulously. Like humans, the Reach eggs often only bore one offspring. Unlike humans, twins were rarer and an even greater omen as they signified twice the power of a single Reach alien. Triplets were unheard of with only a single appearance in ancient Reach mythology. They were the first delegation to conquer, setting a standard for their future kind. One Ambassador, one Scientist, and one Warrior. These were the footprints that the Scientist, her mate, and the Black Beetle walked in, though they bared no blood relation.

"When will they hatch?"

"The first hour of the New Year Festival."

"Then we shall rejoice that day. With these hatchlings, we have the power to overthrow the the pitiful human resistance that call themselves Young Justice. They will rule this planet with their power. They will be the moon and the sun. Can you believe it? We are the parents of these children who will have the power of the stars in their hands."

The Scientist nodded. "I apologize for not telling you sooner.I was unable to have a private moment with you since their conception."

The Ambassador nuzzled her cheek, the Reach equivalent of a kiss. "There is no need. Before was the wrong time. Now is perfect. I have a meeting with human officials who govern what is left of the slave population in a few hours. I shall announce it then as well as out mateship. Unless you wish to tell our families first."

"I believe our families should know. However, for convenience, I will inform our families and you will tell the slaves."

"So be it. The humans will celebrate this glorious event. They will have one day for this celebration as a break from their labors. They will celebrate with us. I shall leave to ready ourselves for the presentation. Do you wish to stand by my side?"

The Scientist thought about this. This was an enormous gesture. Despite being the Head Scientist, she had little authority over anyone outside of the other scientists. This would be a public display of the Ambassador giving her authority. Despite a longing to be recognized, she thought about standing in front of everything as it was announced she was to be a mother. She shook her head. No, she enjoyed it much more being unseen and playing her role with as little attention as possible.

As the Ambassador wrapped his arms around her one last time, he whispered into her ear, "You should join my quarters. It is only proper if our mateship is to be announced."

She agreed with him as he left. Before, joining his quarters without a public announcement would be seen as vulgar and the Ambassador and herself incompetent for their roles. Now though, with an egg created between them, it would be expected. As she lowered the egg back into hiding, she had one last thought which sent her heart leaping.

She was going to be a mother.

* * *

**Author's Note: So what do you think of the Scientist and the Ambassador being mates and soon to be parents? Pretty weird, huh? Thanks to Greendogg who gave me the idea for this chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7: A Plot Against the Reach

Joan's parents had left in part to make sure the cellar could be used as a safehouse room for any Young Justice members and in part to sleep after the day. Because it late, Joan's parents had decided to let Nightwing stay in Joan's room along with Tim and Henry. Joan would get Henry's room. Joan sighed with the idea as her brothers bed was squishier that hers, but she wouldn't complain. For now, her parents had ignored the fact that she had lied to them for the day. She chuckled to herself. She could remember before the Reach that she lied to her parents all the time. Small lies, but regardless, since the Reach came something had settled over the family that improved the overall integrity. Truth was now sacred and obedience was treasured.

Joan looked out the window her brother had. It was smaller than hers and on the other side of the house so she could see no moon unless she craned her neck against the glass. Now she saw the fields outside her house which she used to ride her horse in. Now there were tomatoes everywhere. On the other side of the farm were the chicken coops which contained thousands and thousands of chickens. Joan was happy they had not gotten the chicken houses. She overheard from the others that the smell was awful.

Joan remembered the horse she had. It had been a roan mare that had been with her since she had been ten. It had been a surprise birthday present that had made Joan squealed. She had never been much for squealing, but the reaction had pleased her parents all the more.

"I really should do something for them. Something nice..." Joan whispered to herself.

Suddenly, a tapping from the door disrupted Joan from her thoughts. She stood up quickly, startled. She opened the door to see Nightwing there, leaning heavily on the doorway. Her eyes widened. He had difficulty sitting up a few hours ago, now he was standing. She had to hand to him. Nightwing was determined, if nothing else.

"I don't mean to disturb you if you were sleeping..." He wore a slightly guilty expression upon his face.

"It's fine. I have always been a bit of a night owl." Joan rarely slept in fact. Six hours was more than enough for her which had been a huge advantage to her in high school. Her peers would come to school sleep deprived and she was chattering like a squirrel by eight in the morning. Back when there had been school... Joan hoped the few friends she had were okay.

"I've been meaning to ask you something since this morning. I was wondering how to say it or bring it up but I haven't been sure how. So I think I'm just going to say it."

Joan smiled slightly with sympathy on his face. She could practically feel the awkwardness of the words that he wanted to say. Joan gestured over to the bed where she sat down. Nightwing sat down at the foot of the bed next to her.

"I wanted to know how interested you might be in joining Young Justice."

Joan stared at the man on the bed. She had wanted to join the team since she first heard the rumors from the workers at the farm. She looked out the window, trying to think, deciding, looking anywhere but Nightwing's eyes. "What about my family?"

"Your parents are setting up the safehouse so if you are ever sent on a mission in the area, then you could them and Henry. Your brother has also agreed to be a spy on the Reach giving us information about how they work. Don't worry," he calmed her seeing her eyes widen. "He won't be in any real danger."

Joan sat back, leaning against the headboard of Henry's bed. She spent a moment remembering the past. Before, her brother had several posters of members of the Justice League. He would dream about being one of them, standing with them. For Joan, she wanted to run. It was what she loved and she had the potential. She figured that if she went to college, she would get a business degree simply to have a degree to fall back upon if running never worked. Now, though, at least since the Reach came, she wanted to do nothing but have them gone. She would have done anything to get them out if she had had a reasonable chance. Now here was one, something that she would excel at.

But then again...

"The Reach would notice my absence before the night ended. Then my family would be questioned, none too nicely. If I was on my own, no one else knew about this, then I would go in a heartbeat. The Reach would know they knew nothing. But they do. They would be sent away, and no one knows what happens when someone is sent away..."

Nightwing nodded, understanding her dilemma. "We could create a cover if you want. It would keep your parents out of it and involve only you."

Joan cocked her head. "What's the idea?"

"How much do you know about being sent away?"

Joan stared at Nightwing in shock. She expected something along the lines of disappearing, but this was unexpected. Away was a hellish place that no one would go. Only those who were truly at death's door would come back from away. She wondered how she would be sent away. There were a number of ways, faking illness, attacking a Reach official,. However, the latter could result in immediate execution.

Joan responded slowly and hesitantly, trying to articulate her caution. "I have no idea where away is, only that few return from there. Those are the workers that are truly sick. They never talk about it, and few even think they have remember being sent away."

"Alright. Tomorrow, then, can you,Tim, and your family try to find out about away? I understand there will be risks, but it might be the only way to make sure that everything will turn out and I won't have failed my mission."

"What do you mean, save your failed mission?" Joan saw the pain in Nightwing's eyes.

It was Nightwing's turn to sound hesitant and unwillingly to speak. "When I came to your house, I had barely escaped the Reach. I was investigating a facility where we had intel that some of our own was being held, specifically my best friend, Kid Flash. Hopefully, one day, you'll get the chance to meet him."

Joan smiled. She could see Nightwing's eyes light up at the mention of his friend's name. She understood the countless memories that lay inside his mind, something she had never truly had though she longed for them. "I hope I do to. He sounds amazing."

"His fiance thinks so too. She would have come herself if everyone hadn't managed to convince her otherwise."

"He's engaged?"

"For about five months now. He was going to ask her a couple years ago, but the Reach took over. After that, we've been running so many missions, he never got the chance to ask. Now, they're just waiting for a lull in life to have the chance to go through the ceremony." Nightwing laughed. "It's not easy to get married when you're fighting the Reach at every turn."

Joan grinned. "If they love each other enough, then they will find a way." Nightwing sighed. Joan noticed right away. It wasn't a sigh of contentment."What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Nightwing," Joan looked behind his mask. Slowly, she removed it so she could gaze into his blue eyes. She smiled gently, hoping he could tell her what she knew was bothering him. "I can tell it's not nothing... You can trust me."

Nightwing paused, then took back his mask. "You never answered my question. Do you think your family could ask around. I'm afraid I will still have to stay here. I barely made it across the hall."

Joan sighed, feeling slight hurt at Nightwing's inability of trusting her. She knew is was eating at him, but she also knew he would never show it. That was who he was. Someone who would give everything up for what he believes in, regardless of what it puts him through. "I think we can. It will be hard to start a conversation, let alone steering the direction towards to the Reach, however I think it will be possible."

Nightwing stood up slowly, wincing at his injuries. His body had grown stiff sitting there. He began to make his way to the door. Joan stood up to help him, but he shrugged her off. "Tomorrow then. We'll gather information tomorrow and set up your going away. Good luck and good night, Joan."

Joan felt her heart sank a little bit as he left and she whispered with only her hearing it, "Good night, Nightwing."


	8. Chapter 8: An Accident at the Farm

Joan arrived at the farm the next morning unusually exhausted. She had stayed up until an hour or two before dawn the night thinking about Nightwing. After taking his mask off last night, his face and eyes had struck something in her. He seemed familiar almost. She knew him from somewhere, but where? Then there was the fact that he had obvious trust issues and wouldn't talk about himself.

"Why do we have to work today? There's rain, thunder, and I'm fairly certain that's lightning in the distance." Tim, as always, could bring her out of her thoughts.

"Because we work for the Reach. They make the rules. We have to follow them." Joan kept walking, despite the fact that the rain had soaked her to the bone the moment she stepped outside. She hoped that there would be no outside tasks today and everyone she knew would be safe that day, that nothing would go wrong if they were forced to go outside.

They walked through the door and Joan and Tim held out their wrists. The Reach in front of the talked in his monotone voice, "Task today is covering up the crops like everyone else. The thunderstorm is taking priority over other tasks today. Equipment is over there."

Tim thanked him, earning him a flash of surprise from the Reach official and a glare from Joan. She didn't think that any Reach deserved thanks; to her, he only told him where the equipment was because he was required and would get in trouble if anyone got hurt because they didn't have the right equipment.

The two of them grabbed their plastic gray poncho like but more maneuverable uniforms before walking out. With several hundred acres of farmland to cover before dark, Joan led Tim to the old planes that were used to distribute the protein and pesticides in the old days. Joan looked at Tim who was staring at her. "Have you ever flown a plane before?"

"Not this type. How old are they?" Tim seemed torn between drooling over their rarity and freaking out because he actually had to fly one of them.

"No idea. They were old before the Reach came. They thought about giving us what they call skimmers, but apparently it cost more than we're worth and these old biplanes worked well enough for our purposes." Joan tossed a pair of goggles and gloves to Tim and hopped into a rusted plane that used to be a bright cherry red with white accents. Tim warily circled the one next to Joan before hesitantly jumping into his as if it was about to break any moment.

Joan started the engine as she had only once before. It was for the same reason, a thunderstorm which overturned any priority inside the farmhouse. She had had no prior training, only brief instruction on how to get in the air and how to land. She told Tim the same thing said to her and in less than a minute, with the foam dispensers hooked up underneath, was in the air over the farm where she headed out to her hundred acres of land.

After a couple minutes of laying the foamy cover over the crops, Joan landed the biplane in the hangar, she glanced around while waiting for Tim. Rarely performing tasks outside, Joan was curious as to what lay outside the interior of the plantation. Except for the biplanes and the different containers of the protein and cover, there wasn't much to look around at. As Joan was about to give up, Tim flew in with a rather bumpy landing. Joan tried not to snicker as he hopped out with a disgruntled look on his face.

"That is the worst piece of... what are those? That foam stuff we sprayed all over the tomatoes?"

"That and the protein. I guess this is where they keep it." Joan made a face thinking about the what the Reach added into the only vegetable she would eat as a kid and thus her favorite.

"Nightwing will want samples of this..." Tim walked over and began to open the lids and take small vials that he produced from somewhere underneath his uniform. He walked throughout the building. He opened his mouth to ask a question when another biplane landed. Tim did his best to look inconspicuous though he relaxed when he saw it was only Joan's father.

"I did some asking around before flying. The only person who was sent away and came back is Marc. Joan, you remember him from the first rounds of eggs when the Reach first came. Anyways, I did some talking with him, and all he had was this panicked look in his eyes and whispered to me, 'you don't want to know.' And he was one of the ones taken away for legitimate reasons. Joan, I think there are better ways to go."

"Alright. I still think it will be our best bet having only me involved, but we'll brainstorm ideas tonight. Can we go inside now, Dad? I've haven't worked outside before."

"We had a short task so we go in and see the Reach who assigns us tasks. We get another short task for the day. If we finish that task, we repeat until the task is done or the day is over."

Joan nodded and followed her father outside of the hangar. As she walked outside, she noticed how black and angry the thunderheads looked. She eyed them warily, commenting, "I think we'll have thunder and lightning here really soon. Is everyone finished with the covering task?" Joan looked up at her father with the same concern he had only seen her show once before when she was small girl and a little red bird had run into her window right in front of her. She had acted very much the same way, asking if it would be alright.

"Your mom is still out with one other man, but they're it for flying. Don't worry, sweetie, they'll be okay." Her dad squeezed her hand comfortingly before walking to get his next task. Tim walked closer to her, unsure of what to say to Joan. He decided on the distraction technique Bruce had taught him.

"What is this foam stuff, Joan? I see it covering the plants, but I have no idea what it's doing..."

Joan smiled, grateful for Tim and his own way of taking her mind off of things. He reminded her of her little brother in that sense. "The foam is Reach design. I'm not sure what it's made of and they deliver it. Basically though, during thunderstorms, it keeps the plants from getting waterlogged. It's like rubber so the plants aren't hurt if struck by lightning. It's pretty neat and would have saved a lot of families from ruin before if we had it."

Tim nodded. "Well, we'll analyze it back at the lab and maybe after everything is over, we'll still have it for everyone to use."

Joan thanks Tim. Inside her, she did have some slight confliction with her feelings among the Reach. She hated them. They took over her world, destroyed her life, and reduced her down to an ant. But somewhere in her head, she was glad for the advancement they brought with them. Before the Reach came, her family was slowly going bankrupt trying to keep up their farm and still have a future for their kids. So while the Reach ruined her life, they also gave her a chance at something; they gave her something she never really had. Certainty.

Then, as if being punished for her thoughts, the weather than she had been worrying about struck her. Several million volts of electricity ran through her body and she collapsed to the ground, not even having time to scream in pain, leaving Tim stunned, eventually calling for help as Reach and workers alike came running out to see what happened and who had been struck by the fire of the gods.

* * *

Dick paced around Joan's room, waiting for the family to come home. Looking out from her window, he saw the Reach ship take off from the farm and go off into the atmosphere. He knew that those ships were the same ones that had taken Kid Flash to the main ship that constantly orbited earth. He knew that one leaving from the farm meant something serious had happened. He hoped that Tim, Joan, and her family were all safe.

Dick, unable to take it any longer, walked down the hall, deciding to pace down there. It was riskier, but it was well after dark and the family should have returned home by now. He groaned, and gritted his teeth as he made his way into the kitchen. He was rewarded with Tim walking through the door followed by Elizabeth and Matthias. Henry, who had been home for a couple hours and bugged Dick until Dick had barked at him, came sliding down the hall, only to have his face fall like Dick's.

"What happened?" Dick knew that look. He wore the same look when he had to tell everyone of Kaldur's 'betrayal' a few years ago. He knew that it meant something horrible, and this time, there was no trace of acting that he had had back then.

"Joan..." Tim choked out. Dick felt Elizabeth's fist hit his jaw though he rolled with it. He saw Matthias hold her back and whisper that it was not his fault. Dick looked at Tim, whose eyes were shallow and hollow.

"Tim... Robin!" Hearing his alias name seemed to bring Dick's little brother back. "Tell be what happened. I need to know everything." Dick couldn't keep out the small seed of fear at the thought of something happening to Joan.

"We were walking back to the farm for another task. We had gathered samples of the protein and the cover they used to cover the crops." Tim handed the vials to Dick. "Then, out of nowhere, she was struck by lightning. The Reach came, took her away, then ordered us back to work. They wouldn't tell us anything about her..."

Dick saw immediately that Tim was struck by the accident with Joan. He glanced at her parents. Her mother was still glaring at him while her father said, "The Reach took her inside. One of the officials briefly came over to us and said that they were taking her away to save her. A ship took her off into the sky. That's all we know. Like Tim said. We don't know anything else. They don't tell us anything beyond that."

Dick felt his heart stop. He knew Joan thought that being sent away was a good way to disappear and join the team, but they both decided that they needed to talk about it more. Now, Dick knew that Joan had he wish. She had been taken by the Reach where she had planned to escape and meet up at a place they had never agreed upon. Only now, she was badly burned and Dick prayed that she wouldn't pay for his request for her to join the team with her life.


	9. Chapter 9: Prisoner of the Reach

Kid Flash had been stuck in his pod for over a week now.

He had gone insane.

Actually, he had no real idea if he was insane or not, but he was getting antsy._ It's not that bad_, he thought to himself. _They bring me lots of food at least. Even if it does taste awful._

He was unsure of how he ended up there, as everything before the pod he had essentially been living in was dark. However, since he had been there, he finally understood why his cousin Bart had gone silent whenever anyone asked what had happened on the ship. They had poked and prodded him ever since he had arrived. They had taken countless blood and DNA samples. They had electrocuted him, drowned him, and burned him. All to see how his body would react in those situations.

They had also asked him an incessant amount of questions about his metagene. He hadn't answered, but they would often give him a drug that made it difficult to remember what he actually said. So he hoped that he had said some memorable joke and not important information.

Kid Flash often thought about Artemis. He would smile whenever he thought about her much to the chagrin of the Reach Scientist. He was still amazed that she had said yes to his proposal. He decided as he had several other times since his capture that as soon as he escaped, he would marry Artemis. It wouldn't be fancy, though he knew Dick would want to celebrate. He supposed that with the string of failed missions the last month, everyone would want to come and help to keep up morale. Kid Flash enjoyed the thought, knowing how down everyone had been and he suspected Artemis would too. He often thought about what he would say for his vows as he was now when the Reach scientists brought in something new.

It was a girl of about nineteen years who was laid on the cold table. Her beige clothes were charred black and fused into her skin. Her hair had been burnt away and Wally could barely make out her face. He felt his stomach turn, and was suddenly grateful that the Reach had given him a fluid making it impossible to barf. He saw the Scientist begin to cut and py away her clothing, though most of it was impossible. The Scientist's brow furrowed in frustration and an assistant that would often sneak glances at Kid Flash handed her a black fluid. The Scientist poured it all over the girl's body then began to remove the uniform. Kid Flash felt guilty seeing the girl naked, but as most of her was black and indistinguishable, he decided it was not important.

Then the girl began to cough. Kid Flash felt something like surprise and horror at seeing this black monster move. The Scientist held the girl down then seemed equally surprised as KF when suddenly, the girl's skin began to knit itself back together. Instead of charred, it looked soft and pink. Her body became definable again and with his cheeks blushing, Kid Flash looked away. He heard confused and loud voices being exchanged, and when he snuck a peek, the girl had a blanket over her. Her hair was still gone, though her skin was all but grown back. The Scientist grabbed a shot and drew blood from the girl. The the Scientist and her assistant left.

Kid Flash made sure they were gone before calling out to the girl. He doubted she would respond despite seeing her heal before his very eyes. He was right, though she groaned upon hearing his voice. He would have to wait.

Ten minutes.

One hour.

Three hours.

Four hours.

Wally was getting tired of waiting for the girl to wake up. He was almost asleep when he heard the distinctive footsteps of the Reach Scientist. She pressed a button and the clear material of the pod fell down. She released his restraints and dragged him out of the pod after injecting him with a sedative making him too weak to do anything.

"Who is she?" the Scientist asked in English, frustration in her voice

"I don't know."

"Is she a part of Young Justice?"

Though Kid knew that Nightwing knew every member of the Young Justice team, Kid could barely remember anyone outside of the original six of the original team. He still forgot the Atlantean kid's name every time KF saw him. "I haven't the faintest."

"Speak plain, meat."

The part the irritated him the most was the fact that the Reach refused to try to understand human idioms. "I wouldn't know. I had trouble remembering my own cell phone number." Artemis used to give him grief and would cuff his head when someone asked him his number and he would have to ask her. He rubbed his head at the thought.

"Can you explain her metagene?"

"Aren't you the expert in that particular area? You have been studying it since you came to our neck of the woods."

"I am going to assume that you mean Earth..."

Kid Flash sighed. He wished that instead of the Reach it was some other alien race that at least had a sense of humor that had taken over Earth. "I have never seen that girl before in my life. I don't know anything about her. As far as I am concerned, she is nothing more than a farm girl to me."

"You saw her rapid healing abilities. They are extraordinary, exceptional. Especially compared to yours."

KId Flash made a face at the slight against him. He thought anyone with healing abilities would be better than his. He was quicker to heal than most, that was true. However, compared with this girl, anyone who had healing abilities would be disgraced.

"She is the first," the Reach Scientist whispered under her breath. Kid almost didn't hear her.

"Excuse me? What did you say?"

"She is the first," the Scientists said louder, though not much.

"The first of what?"

"The first of a new generation of metahumans."

"What do you mean by that?" Kid Flash had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"As long as we have been here, we have discovered an increasing amount of humans with the metagene. We have also discovered that as time passes, the metagenes are becoming more and more powerful. The gene itself is evolving."

"What does that mean?" The sinking feeling grew stronger. Kid Flash was not sure how the gene could be evolving, but he knew that it met more trouble for Young Justice.

"She is the first of the new kind."


	10. Chapter 10: Waking Up

Joan's mind woke before her body did. She awoke to darkness surrounding her. Slowly, she felt a tingling in her fingers and toes that gradually spread up her arms and legs. As that ceased, her hearing returned, though it was muffled. She heard voices, a male voice and a Reach female's. Joan felt her heartbeat begin to race, though she struggled for control. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to see a Reach Scientist standing over her.

Joan reacted before the Scientist did. With a scream, she lashed out and clawed the face of the Scientist. She sat up, grabbing the blanket that had started to fall down. She looked at the man staring at her with red hair and a battered yellow suit with the red lightning bolt on his chest.

A sharp pain stabbed her neck and suddenly Joan was on her back again and unable to move. The tingling sensation ran throughout her entire body now and she watched as the Scientist stood up with fury on her face. She groaned in pain, as the tingling turned into burning. The Scientist pushed the man back into a pod and left the man shouting to let him go though Joan could see he was too weak to do any real damage.

The Scientist looked down at Joan with a wicked smile on her face. She drew blood from Joan's arm causing Joan to nearly faint. She had never been good around seeing blood come out from her own body. She had barely been able to do the blood donation at school and that was only because she closed her eyes shut tightly and nearly squeezed the little ball into oblivion. Joan felt her stomach turning, but swore to herself not to throw up all over herself.

The Scientist set the vial of blood into a machine, punched something into the computer, spoke in a language that Joan didn't understand before leaving the room. Joan was left lying there, trying to calm herself so she wouldn't go into a full on panic attack.

"My name is Kid Flash."

Joan heard the voice coming from the pod. She glanced over from the corner of her eyes. She sighed, then nodded. her voice was strained, but she managed to croak out, "I know who you are. My younger brother was slightly obsessed with you."

"Really? Must be an awesome kid." Joan could hear the cockiness in his voice and groaned again. SHe could remember the years before the Reach when her brother would wake her in the middle of the night because he had an awesome dream that he just needed to tell her about. She smiled as much as she could. He had always wanted to be Kid Flash, but not the Flash. He said that if he was Kid, then he could be a hero and work right next to the Flash. He thought there was nothing cooler.

"He's more than that..." Joan whispered, a tear burning in her eye. Her family and brother especially would be so worried about her. She hated it. Causing them pain. "Do you know what happened?"

He shook his head. "They brought you in here as barbecue then poof! You heal yourself."

Joan's face scrunched in confusion. Beyond facial expressions though, she couldn't move. "How did I do that?" Joan had never been able to do anything like that before. She felt a hint of jealousy in her chest. That would have really come in handy when she broke her arm when she was ten after falling off of her horse.

"You have inside of you something that the Reach call a metagene. It gives you incredible powers like rapid healing. Have you never had anything like this happen to you before?"

"No..." Joan coughed out.

"Then you have the third type of metagene."

"Third type? What are you talking about, speed guy?" Joan felt as if she had walked into the wrong science class at a college, this man kept on speaking of things she didn't understand though metagenes did sound familiar. She could remember the others on the farm speaking of those they knew taken away because they had a metagene.

"Sorry, I tend to get ahead of myself. There are three types of metagenes. The first type is when the gene has been active and so are your powers since the day you were born like my niece and nephew. The second type is the gene has been active since birth but waits until something is imprinted on it like mine. I had a chemical accident which imprinted on my gene giving me my powers. The third type is the most common as quarter of the human population has it. You have the metagene, but it does not activate until placed under extreme conditions. The Reach are interested in these types of metagenes mostly, though any metahuman is captured by them."

"What do they want with the metagene?" Joan's head was reeling with the information and its impacts on the world and her life. Was rapid healing her power? She could think of several other ones she would rather have.

"They want to weaponize it. At least, they did originally. Now we think that they just want to study it and create a gene therapy so they can have it themselves."

"What about the Beetles?" Joan heard stories and remembered seeing the Black and Blue Beetles on television.

"You mean their scarabs? We think that they are trying to find a way to outgrow them as Earth does have a few locations that can render the scarabs harmless. We tried it once on one our teammates, Blue, after he was brainwashed."

"It didn't work." Joan knew this. He had visited the farm once in which he killed an old man who had been rendered useless to the Reach. She hated him still for that. She doubted that she could ever forgive him for what he does.

"No. We were interrupted before we could finish."

Kid Flash grew silent and Joan remembered the previous night, or the last night she could remember anyways. Nightwing had mentioned his friend being Kid Flash and he was supposed to rescue him. "You're Nightwing's friend."

She glimpsed KF's confusion. "You know Nightwing?"

"He tried to rescue you, but got hurt. He's recuperating at..." Joan saw a small device in the corner of the room that looked suspiciously like a camera. "Well, somewhere the Reach would like to know."

Kid Flash glanced up and saw what he was looking at. "Then you are part of Young Justice?"

Joan tried to shake her head, but couldn't. "No. I was offered, but no, though it looks like that might have to change..."

Kid Flash nodded. "Unless you plan on cooperating with the Reach, there really isn't any ways for you to go back to you life. You would be better off with us."

"When we escape." Joan tried to keep hope in her voice, but she knew in reality that that 'when' was very well and 'if.' She could see that Kid knew it too and he was silent for a minute. She could see sorrow in his eyes, the sorrow experienced by loss. She remembered Nightwing mentioning Kid Flash had a fiancé. "I heard that your fiancé is doing well."

This perked him up tremendously and he didn't notice that Joan really had no idea how is girl was doing. "Really? Did you talk to her?"

"Nightwing mentioned her. He says she's doing really well. Worried, but well." Joan knew that that was probably close enough to the truth for it not to be a complete lie.

Kid Flash sighed. "Artemis, my little spitfire..." he whispered. "I promise, I'm coming back."

Joan looked at him, seeing the full capability of someone who was madly in love with another. She knew then and there that Kid Flash would escape; he would leave this Reach ship alive if only to say he loved her one last time. Joan suddenly felt empty of that type of love. She had never known it. She had tied to date in high school, but she had never really had much experience before the Reach came. Now she knew that she wanted to find someone who cared as deeply for her as Kid Flash did for Artemis. She hoped she would find a man like that one day. But for now, she knew what she had to do.

She would help Kid Flash escape.


	11. Chapter 11: Two Prisoners Escape

Joan was still lying on the freezing cold table. Throughout the time she had been awake, it had not warmed with her body. On the contrary, it seemed to be getting colder. She was wondering how she could escape and get off the cold table while her body was still unable to move, when a thought crossed her mind. "KF, can you do that one trick Flash does with vibrating his molecules to pass through solid objects?"

Kid Flash laughed. "I haven't tried since I was fourteen and got a bloody nose." Then he saw what she meant. He nodded subtlety and began to try. Joan watched in pain as every attempt led to Kid Flash bouncing back with a shout of pain. An hour passed with him continuously trying to vibrate through, only stopping when a Reach patrol went by, blood pouring down his face and arms. Joan was about to tell him to stop when his arm made it through before he had to pull it back inside.

"Aw, yeah!" he shouted, almost drawing the attention of Reach patrols outside. He whispered quietly to Joan, "Sorry, I had to bring it back in. Otherwise, my arm would have been cut in half."

Joan shook her head. "No, it was good. It means you can do it which means we can escape." She understood the worth of this progress, even if it caused so much pain for Kid. She tried to move her toes as she had been for the last ten minutes or so as the drug-induced pain began to dim.

"We can't escape if you can't move." He said, watching her stillness.

"I'll be fine." At long last, she was granted success. Her big toe moved just the slightest. "My toes can move so hopefully I can walk by the time you get yourself out and before that Reach scientist comes back." Joan tried again and was rewarded with her foot moving. "See? Getting easier already."

Kid Flash nodded. "Okay, the Scientist is smart so she'll know when you'll be able to move again and that means she'll be here any minute now. Let me try again." Kid Flash began to vibrate, building up momentum. Joan managed to tilt her head enough so she could see better of what he was doing. Within less than a minute, he was vibrating to the point where Joan no longer could see anything more than a yellow blur. She held her breath as he pushed his hand through the glass and exhaled as his entire body passed through. He laughed quietly. "Remind me to tell Artemis that the thought of he is the only reason I can do that."

Joan nodded. She tried to move more but only her feet responded. She looked up at Kid who had doubt written all over his face. She grinned. "I can escape while waddling." The joke brought a half smile to his face and she sighed, banging her head on the table.

"Here, I'll carry you."

"You'll what?" Joan had never enjoyed getting carried. Her father had tried giving her piggyback rides when she was little and they absolutely terrified her. As she grew older, it became more of a weight conscious fear. "Absolutely not."

"Look, you need to get out of here somehow. You can't walk. It will be faster this way anyways." His eyes pleaded with her.

"Fine." Joan closed her eyes, knowing that she would hate every minute of this. His hands slowly went under her torso and picked her up. The blanket now wrapped completely around her so his hands weren't directly touching her, giving Joan a slight comfort. As she settled against his chest, she felt just how strong this man was. Before she knew it, he took off and they were running around the Reach ship, air whipping around her.

However, soon, he slowed down, skidding to a stop. He looked around. "I think we just came this way."

Joan looked around. "I wouldn't know. It all looks the same to me, especially when I'm going as fast as sound. Wait a minute... Set me down. This looks like that another lab." Kid Flash gave her a look. "I think I can stand now." He gently put her down and she grabbed the blanket so it wouldn't fall down.

She entered the lab and saw a pedestal in the center with a large round stone on top. It was deep sapphire blue with emerald green swirls. Joan hesitantly raised her hand towards it and placed it atop of the stone. It was warm to the touch and Joan could have sworn she felt a heartbeat coming from the beautiful rock. She smiled. It wasn't a stone. It was an egg. Hesitantly, she detached the monitors on it and lifted it from its pedestal.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Kid asked in a strained hushed voice. She turned around, smiling which sent a shudder down KF's spine.

"It's an egg. How much do you want to bet that this is important to the Reach?" Joan felt as devious as her brother did on the April Fool's day he dyed her hair. She looked at the monitors, but they made no sense to her. She tried to balance the egg along with the blanket around her body.

Kid sighed, conceding her point. "Alright. Now get back here so I can get us out of here." He picked Joan back up and she balanced the egg close to her body. With a comment on not getting them lost again, they were off, running through the ship as no more than a blur to anyone who saw them.

They reached a place where Kid said it was an airlock for deploying ships. As he set her down again, exploring, he quickly came back out with a smile. They had found a ship to commandeer. Joan waddled inside, taking in the strange and bizarre exterior while trying to drop anything. A siren sounded from outside, causing Joan to wonder if it was their escape or the egg's disappearance that caused the alarm to sound. She supposed that it didn' matter in the end.

It turned out that Kid Flash had experience flying these ships, surprising Joan. She sat down in one of the seats and held the egg in her lap. She watched hesitantly as the ship gradually took off and they escaped into space.

"That was too easy..." Kid muttered to himself as they flew off.

"They might know we have the egg," Joan suggested. It was an entirely real possibility, however she doubted that the egg was that important except to its mother. Joan was suddenly curious as to what sort of creature it was. While it was on a Reach ship, she wondered if was an animal form the Reach's homeworld or if this was how the Reach reproduced.

"Then we should get away as quickly as possible. I'm taking us to Star City. There's zeta-"

"I don't want to sound rude, but we should stop by my house. It's a safehouse now and Nightwing's there. We can ditch the ship in the woods a couple miles away."

"Won't they be suspicious of the ship being so close to your house?"

"My parents will lie if it comes down to it. Come on, let's get back to our planet."

Kid Flash asked where she lived and she told him. He punched in the coordinates and within minutes, they had landed in the nearby forest just outside of the farmlands. Kid looked at her again and Joan sighed. She was growing tired of running around with only a blanket wrapped around her and holding onto an egg. She took a deep breath and she was racing around again in Kid Flash's arms. On one side, she would be blushing, however, now, she was just wanting the world to stop spinning. Even when they skidded to a stop, Joan was kneeling on the ground making sure she wouldn't barf.

When she looked up, it was dusk. No one had returned from the farm yet and it looked like the thunderstorm had passed as it was on the west south side of the horizon. Joan looked up at her house and smiled. She saw Henry run out and stare at her before running in for a hug from her. She smiled as she saw Henry's reaction at seeing Kid Flash before his eyes. The Kid Flash.

"Henry, help us inside. I can barely walk."

Henry helped them inside and Joan leaned heavily on him. Kid Flash walked with them while keeping a watchful eye on their surroundings. The tomato plants only offered so much protection. Henry brought them around the back and through the kitchen door where Nightwing was. He dropped the cup of water as he saw KF walk through the door. The two smiled then ran up and hugged each other tightly. Joan could have sworn that she saw Nightwing shed a tear though she would never be certain. She smiled, seeing everyone so happy. Tim also ran up and hugged Kid though not as with as much emotion as with Nightwing's.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it in time, Wally," Nightwing said. Joan looked at Kid hearing his real name, though suspected that he never told her because they were in the presence of the Reach the majority of the time.

"Don't sweat it. She helped me out." Wally gestured to Joan who blushed slightly, especially seeing Nightwing's face of gratitude.

Nightwing walked over to her and gave her a big old hug lifting her off the ground and spinning her around in gratitude much to Joan's dismay as she screeched. He set her down. "Nothing I say can ever thank you for what you've done. You are ready to join Young Justice and being taken away and escape from the Reach gives you the perfect cover. We'll tell your family what to say and Henry," Henry looked up eagerly. "We'll relying on you to show the proper expressions."

Henry nodded eagerly, excited to be fooling the Reach. Nightwing looked at Joan again. She almost blushed, but her pride was too great for that. She smiled. "It was nothing."

Nightwing placed his hand proudly on her shoulder. "It wasn't nothing. You have given me my best friend back. I don't know how I can repay you."

Joan smiled, feeling all the warmth and happiness in the room. She was content and she knew this is what she wanted to do. She was still unsure of what had happened in the Reach ship and had a sinking suspicion that she was unconscious most of the time and would pay dearly for whatever her metagene met. As she looked at everyone in the room though, she knew that day would not come for a while. For now, at least, she could relax and enjoy the moment.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	12. Chapter 12: Time for Goodbyes

Joan was in her own room once again making her more than happy. The boys got Henry's room, which in Joan's opinion, should have been like that from the start. According to her family, she had been gone for two whole days since she had been struck by lightning. Joan still cringed when she tried to remember her accident, but only a flash of the searing pain was all she got. She tried desperately to forget it though it was impossible as her family kept on asking questions.

When her parents got home, the happiness from that house was overflowing. Her parents had hugged her to the point where she could no longer breathe and according to Wally, turned a very pretty shade of purple. Her mother immediately noticed her lack of hair and began to complain, though she pointed out that it might grow back as her natural blonde and not red. Joan nodded, appreciating that, though something told her that that would not be the case. But she still agreed with her mother, claiming the red was not her style.

Her mom had offered to make dinner and set about doing so, though Joan said she wasn't hungry. Plus, the Reach knew that she was not supposed to be at home, so they would only give her family enough for her parents and Henry. She really wasn't hungry though, despite not having ate for two days. It concerned her a little, but she pushed it away. She still wasn't sure what the Reach did to her.

But now, back in her own room, she looked through her own window and the farmland around her. She sighed, breathing in her home before turning back around to pack only to see Nightwing in her doorway.

"If my parents catch you, nothing I say will stop my dad from killing you." Joan smiled.

Nightwing chuckled. "Your dad seems to have faith in you ability to do so if anything happens, so I'm not too concerned. I'm just came in here to tell you to pack light. If you bring to much, the Reach will know that you came back."

Joan nodded, then placed her bag on the ground. She understood leaving behind as much as possible so the Reach would not get suspicious of her family. Joan did not want her family to pay for the price of her decisions, though it sounds like they might have to anyways. She grabbed a black leather jacket then and put it on over her long sleeved red shirt and jeans. She looked back at him. "I'll only take the clothes I'm wearing. Can I bring a small personal item? To remind me of home?"

Nightwing nodded. And Joan looked around her room. There were several things she could have brought that she desperately wanted to. A golden necklace from her mother that was a present for her sixteenth birthday. A picture of Henry that he had given her in order 'to remind her just how much she loved him even when she wanted to kill him.' An honorary coupon her father gave her saying she was allowed to date. There were several mementos such as that that she would ahve a hard time parting from. Then, she remembered something and pulled out a small box underneath her bed. She slowly opened it. This was her box of only the most important things. There were awards from her first running competition. A small horse figurine she found in the gutter one day when she was little. She spent hours cleaning it and painting it. Then, the most important item of all, her good luck charm, a mask of a superhero.

"Where did you get that?" Nightwing asked, a mixture of concern and unusual curiosity in his voice.

Joan was oblivious to the tone in his voice. She was holding it carefully, remembering what had happened for it to come into her hands. "My track team went on a trip to Gotham once for a running competition against Gotham Academy." Joan remembered the competition, chuckling. "We creamed them. They might be rich, but they can't run to save their lives." Joan was oblivious to the look on Nightwing's face. "We went out to celebrate on our last night in Gotham by going to an ice cream parlor that our coach said was amazing. On our way there, I thought I heard someone crying in an alleyway. I know, this is going to make me look like an idiot, but I slipped away and went towards it, wondering if they needed help.

"When I got close to him, he grabbed me from behind and had me in a headlock. He began to whisper horrible things in my ear. I struggled, tried to shout, but his hand was over my mouth. None of my team noticed my absence. I was being dragged away, when he came. A kid a couple years older than me. He took out the man grabbing me. As I lay there on the ground trying to breathe, he came up to me. Still being freaked out, I punched him in the face and stood up, about to run.

"He stopped me, trying to calm me down, but everything he did made me more freaked out. Eventually though, he did the right thing. He took off his mask and looked me in the eye whispering that it was alright, he was like me, and he was one of the good guys. I think... it was seeing his eyes that made me calm down. The only right thing he did. He led me out of the alley and across the street from the ice cream parlor my team was at. It looked like they had only just noticed my absence. He told me to make sure to look both ways before crossing the street. I turned around to thank him, but he was gone, disappeared into the night. His mask was on the ground though. I took it with me as a reminder."

Joan stood up, then laughed. "In a way, that boy was my first crush. Gosh, it's kind of embarrassing to admit; I don't even know him. I guess it was Robin, because it was Gotham, but I don't know if it was the same one because they keep on changing, Tim being proof of that."

Nightwing's head shot up. "You know Tim's Robin?"

Joan nodded. "He told me at the farm... Was he not supposed to?"

"Not necessarily. A Young Justice member has the right to tell anyone their secret identity, I just hoped that Tim would have shown a little more foresight to wait until we got back before telling you everything."

Joan nodded sheepishly. She had been the one to pry about Tim and Young Justice. She hoped Nightwing wouldn't notice. She put the mask on hesitantly. She flinched as it warped to fit her face and stayed. "Now I look just like you." She smiled cockily. "Why does it fit perfectly?"

"Bat technology. You're right, it was Robin's mask. Now come on, we should leave now."

"Wait, I don't get to say goodbye to my parents or Henry? What about you? Can you even walk out the front door?"

"As a matter of fact, I can get there. Besides, we have the Reach ship." He looked at her face underneath the mask. It really was good fit. He sighed. "We should leave now, because we need to get that egg to headquarters. I'm leaving a note for your parents telling them what to say. You can write on the back of it."

He handed her a piece of paper and pencil. Joan took it immediately. On the back, she wrote to her family. I'm sorry I have to leave so soon. I love you guys and will see you soon. She handed it back to Nightwing who didn't look at it. Joan was slightly relieved by that. Even though it was short, it was still personal. "Come one, let's go."

Joan nodded, leaving her room and walking down the hall. Wally and Tim were there already in their hero uniforms. She nodded to them who gave her a look seeing her in the mask. Nightwing placed the note on the table and looked at his team. He nodded, and they left the house.

Joan was carrying the egg back to the ship. In the yard though, Joan turned back one last time, with a knowing that she would never come back despite what she said in the note. She touched the mask on her face, and closed her eyes. This was her life now. With one last breath of home, Joan turned back around and followed Nightwing, Kid Flash, and Robin to the Reach ship where she would become part of the infamous team, Young Justice.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	13. Chapter 13: A Team Called Young Justice

Joan was sitting in the Reach ship holding the egg. She was mesmerized by it and the gorgeously vibrant colors. She rubbed her hand over it, feeling the smooth and cool surface. She wished she could look back and see her house, but the Reach ship had no windows except for the front and besides, her home was long gone. An hour had passed since Joan left home and already, a voice in the back of her head began to whisper that her family would pay the ultimate price of her choices.

"You look hot, Joan," Wally said as he zipped up to her.

Joan stared at him. "Excuse me? Aren't you engaged?"

Kid realized what he said and blushed a shade of red that matched his costume. "No, that's not what I meant. I mean, you look amazing and are attractive, but I don't think you're my type. Not that you're not someone's type and will be single for the rest of your life but I mean-"

"Shut up, KF. She knows what you meant," Nightwing said as he approached the two. He could see the laughter building up on her face as Wally stumbled verbally. Wally groaned, then sat down on a chair next to her. Nightwing knelt down in front of Joan, causing her to remain still. "You do look flushed. Are you sure you're feeling alright?" His voice was calm and comforting.

Joan looked at him, then glanced at her hands, then make at his eyes. "I feel off. Maybe a little feverish. My body is just dealing with whatever it is the Reach did to me. That's all." Nightwing took his right glove off then placed the back of his hand on her forehead. Though a simple gesture, it comforted Joan. She was unsure of how to describe the feeling inside her. It was as if she was slowly cooking or being held over a fire.

"You do feel warm. We'll have a complete health evaluation of you when we get to the Mountain. You too, Wally." Nightwing slipped the glove back on his hand.

"Wait, what? I feel fine!" Joan could see that he did not like hospital's or anything of that nature. She felt sorry for his parents who had to take him to the doctor for his shots as a small child. She winced at the screams Wally would have emitted.

"You were in there for ten days. That is ten days the Reach have had time to experiment and run tests on you. I don't want you coming back only if you are going to die on us. Besides, I'm in charge and there is nothing you can do about that." Nightwing grinned slyly. Wally threw his head back in defeat.

Tim called for them. "We're here." The three came up to the front on the ship and watched as Tim descended. Joan opened her mouth in awe at the sight of the tallest mountain she had even seen before. It was covered with real evergreen trees, a sight that Joan never realized that she had missed so much until now. Around the summit, thick storm clouds were floating around it. It seemed that the storm that had struck Joan had moved here. Joan shuddered at the thought and hoped that she wouldn't be so unlucky again.

"Robin to Young Justice. I repeat, this is Robin."

"Robin? What on earth are you doing in a Reach ship?" A voice came through the communication system. It sounded like a boy Tim's age, though faster and reminded Joan of Wally somehow.

"Same place we found Wally. Reach ship." Tim grinned slyly.

"Crash. I still need the authorization code, though."

"Authorization code B20-Robin 3.

"Recognized, B20-Robin 3. Good to have you back, Tim."

Joan stared in amazement as the ground near the summit pulled apart to reveal a hangar where Tim masterfully landed. Joan had to handed to him; the kid could really learn how to fly anything if given a few minutes to study it. The door opened and Joan pushed aside her fevered condition and ran outside of the ship, eager to see what was really behind the infamous Young Justice.

She got out and saw a handful of heroes gather around. As Wally came out, a blur of white and red flashed by Joan and wrapped his arms around Kid. Wally froze for a moment, then gently tried to pry the teenager off. He began to speak rapidly and Joan recognized the voice who had let the land. Then, a women dressed in a green uniform with blonde hair pulled back ran up to Wally and kissed him. Wally didn't even try to push her away, kissing her back. Nightwing smiled as he walked out and stood next to Joan.

"So what do you think?" he whispered to her.

"I think I don't know who anyone is," Joan laughed. Joy was filling her up and about to bubble over like a mento in a coke bottle. She was eager to see who everyone was and if she recognized anyone from Henry's books that she secretly read.

"Team, listen up," Nightwing shouted and everyone turned and looked at him. Joan wondered once more who Nightwing was to command that much respect from those under him. "We have a new recruit. What should we call you?"

Joan scrunched her forehead in confusion then remembered that she was entitled to her secret identity. She shook her head. "I'm Joan Hayes. If I need a fancy superhero name, I'll think of one later."

Nightwing nodded. "Joan Hayes, then." The other heroes cheered making Joan blush slightly and very thankful that her face was so red anyways they would never be able to tell. "Joan, you know Kid and Robin. The archer in Kid's arms would be Artemis. That right that is Impulse. Wondergirl, Beastboy," he began to list the people in order while pointing to them. "Static, and Aqualad." He turned back to her, finished with the immediate group. Joan felt dizzy with all the new faces and names.

"What about her?" Joan gesture to the woman of Joan's own age with red hair and glasses and a Bat shirt who rolled in on a wheelchair. Joan didn't recognize her, but she saw the flash of strong emotions on Nightwing's face.

"That's Oracle."

The woman rolled up to Joan and offered her hand smiling. Joan shook it as the woman said, "You can call me Barbara."

Joan nodded and smiled. She had a feeling that the two would get together along well. "Joan."

"We're glad to have you as part of the team, Joan. How are you feeling about this?'

Joan smiled widely. She wanted to say she was feeling fantastic, that she never imagined she would ever be a part of a team like this, let alone one meant to take down the Reach. "Are you _serious_? I'm so..."

However, whether it was the couple of days among of the Reach of the excitement of everything, Joan felt her fever spike and the room began to spin. The dizzy feeling from earlier returned, stronger this time. She opened her mouth to speak, but it was dry.

"I'm... so not fine." And Joan collapsed and it was only luck that Nightwing caught her before she hit the floor.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	14. Chapter 14: Dreams of Revenge

The Ambassador was sitting quietly in his room waiting for the Scientist to return to their room. He smiled at the thought of finally sharing his room with her. He had unfortunately not told the meat planet of the cause for celebration, but the ship was fully aware and they had all congratulated him as he walked through the halls bring him the most prideful smile on his face. He scowled when the Warrior had disapproved of his mateship with the Scientist, but as always, respected the decisions after voicing aloud his concerns.

It was then that he heard the sirens go off throughout the ship. The Ambassador stood up and walked out of his quarters, making his way to the bridge of the ship. But as he made it through the doorway, the sirens went off. The Ambassador questioned loudly, "What was that?"

It was the Warrior who answered. "The meat escaped."

"Which meat?" the Ambassador growled.

"The Kid Flash and the metahuman the Scientist was testing."

The Ambassador felt his heart stop for the briefest of moments for the Scientist, but his his concen well. he did not need the Warrior to think that his emotions came first before the cause. His termination could not happen, not with his children due in less than three weeks. "Did you catch them?"

"No. They stole a flier from the launch bay." The Ambassador smiled inwardly seeing this irk the Warrior as the answer was obvious to everyone. The Warrior poorly hid his feelings unlike the Ambassador who had been trained since he was a small child to hide true emotions.

"Are you tracking them?" All standard fliers came with an internal tracking system that enabled the Reach to locate their vehicles at all times. It was how they had found test subjects in the past, though it was rare that one of the would escape. Often, these were considered the more valuable of the humans. A few were even offered freedom and control of their powers so long as they served the Reach loyally.

"Yes. It has landed in one of the tomato and egg farms. I will personally fetch the meat with the little brother." The Ambassador nodded his approval. The Warrior did seem to have a soft spot for the Blue Beetle, often calling him his brother though never to his face.

The Warrior was about to leave but the Scientist came rushing in. Her eyes were wide and he could tell that something was wrong; she was barely keeping her composure. She stopped before him and he saw what looked like tears beginning to form in her eyes. But no, he had to have been mistaken. The Scientist never cried, let alone in front of others.

"They took it." There was no mistaking the pain in her voice.

"They took what, Scientist?"

"The egg! They took my egg!"

Time stood still for everyone. The crew watched in the mates, feelings bursting to the brim at the theft and underhandedness of the human slaves. The Warrior watched how the Ambassador would react, seeing if he was still fit to lead. But for the two mates, time stood still. A thousand emotions washed over the Ambassador. Shock, pain, anger, hurt, loss, and so much more. All in the fraction of a second. But most of all, he felt angry at the Young Justice team, for only they could have been behind it. However, what bothered the Ambassador is that they knew about the egg. They had stolen the egg when it had only just been announced to the ship. Such a breach of security would be punished.

"How long until you reach the flier" His voice was calm, frustrating the Scientist but pleasing the Warrior, a small gain he supposed. He took a deep breath, trying to calm the storm inside him. He knew that one wrong step in this case would result in his immediate termination.

"We can be there within the hour," the Warrior croaked.

"Good. Find the meat, preferably alive. And Warrior, make sure they do not harm the egg." The Warrior nodded. The Ambassador left, knowing the Warrior would do as he asked. It was not for entirely for the fact that he was in charge. It went further than that. Though the Warrior disapproved the mateship between him and the Scientist, it was a Reach's duty to protect any children no matter the circumstances. And to threaten a child was unforgivable to the Reach. A Reach child, anyways. The children of lesser species were unimportant.

The Ambassador left, only to be followed by the Scientist who was right on his heels. They walked in this manner all the way to their quarters in complete silence. It was stifling, but he would never say so. As they walked into their quarters, the Scientist slapped him across the face.

"Why aren't you concerned about our egg?" she hissed. The Ambassador saw that she was on the verge of tears and felt poorly for making her feel that way, but pushed aside those feelings. He didn't need anymore confusing emotions as this particular moment.

"I am as concerned for our egg as any other father would be." He walked up to her and held her in his arms, trying to comfort her though she remained stiff. "I need to careful though. Our children will need their father."

The Scientist looked up at him then returned the embrace, though she pulled away again. "I don't understand my feelings. They are irrational. I am not used to irrationality."

The Ambassador sat down in the chair he had been in before the sirens went off, exhaustion pouring through his body. "Life is irrational, _mejuta_," he whispered to her, using a rarely used term for affection.

The term resounded in the Scientist, as it was only used for the closest of mates. Many were often hesitant to use it and never did. But hearing her mate use it, the Scientist felt for the first time in a long while relief and she relaxed. She sat with him on the chair and laid her head on his chest. Was it only so long ago that he had first expressed his feelings toward her, frightening her? She looked at him in his orange eyes.

"_Mejuta,_ can you promise me something?" An idea was forming in her mind.

"Anything."

"When the Warrior brings back the meat and I finish my tests, promise me that I may kill them personally for taking our egg."

The Ambassador smiled. He found the darkness in his mate absolutely alluring. He nuzzled her cheek, "Nothing would make me happier, _mejuta_."

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	15. Chapter 15: A Healthy Dose of Dream

_Joan Hayes woke up in her bed at home. It was midmorning from the light outside. There were birds chirping outside and it felt hot as it did only in the middle of the hottest summer. It was easily over a hundred degrees outside. She sighed, feeling as if she had forgotten a wonderful dream and tried to recall it but nothing came to mind. She lazily rubbed her eyes, curious as to whether or not she could sleep in any longer._

_Joan sat up quickly, remembering the last thing that had happened. She had been meeting members of Young Justice and she had passed out from a fever. Or so she thought? Did that really actually happen? But... that would mean that the Reach had taken over... Joan looked outside her window. There was no farmland, only acreage that her family owned. In fact, there was blue sky outside without a cloud in sight. So... what had happened?_

_Joan heard her name being called from the kitchen where her mother was. Joan quickly changed into a tank top and jean shorts she had had before the Reach took over... if that ever really happened. She ran down the hall and into the kitchen where her mother was wearing her favorite yellow flower print dress and an apron as she was placing a stack of pancakes on the table. Her father was sitting there in his overalls and t-shirt and Henry was already there, practically drooling in his shorts. He hadn't bothered putting a shirt on. It was too hot outside._

_"Ah, Joan! Finally. Sit down and then we'll pray."_

_Joan slowly sat down, wondering why everyone was dressed so casually and the sun was so high. She bowed her head as her brother said a short prayer. Then the family dug in. Henry grabbed the two biggest pancakes he could before pouring enough syrup to drown his pancakes. Then her father and mother grabbed a couple each before putting their own amounts of butter, syrup, and berries in her mother's case. Joan stared at the plate in front of her._

_"Joan, aren't you hungry?" her father asked._

_Joan glanced at her mother, then continued to stare at the plate. "What's going on?"_

_"What do you mean?"_

_"I mean, why aren't we working at the farm yet? Why isn't Henry at school? Shouldn't the Reach be pounding on our doors by now and dragging us off?"_

_Her parents stared at her in shock and confusion. Henry's mouth dropped, revealing a rather unpleasant sight of unchewed food. They exchanged looks with one another before her mother answered. "You're father has people to work on the farm and you don't have a job. It's the middle of summer; Henry better not be heading to school. And the Reach left Earth two years ago."_

_"What?" Joan couldn't grasp what her mother was saying. The Reach were gone?_

_"The Justice League and their sidekicks defeated the Reach almost two years ago when the world found out that they were lying to us and poisoning us. The planet nearly exploded, but the League saved the day, as they always do. Are you feeling okay, Joan?"_

_Joan nodded, and grabbed a couple of pancakes. As she ate breakfast in silence, she wondered what was going on. Had her fever really caused such a grand delusion? Or were the last two years of the tyranny of the Reach nothing more than a horrible nightmare? It seemed too real for that to be the case, but this felt equally as real. She finished her breakfast, mentions she was going to ride her horse, then left the house so she could clear her head._

_It was hot outside and Joan knew she would burn horribly, but she figured that it wouldn't matter if this was all some giant hallucination. She saw her horse, Amelia, waiting in the stable next to the house who was pawing the ground anxiously as she saw her rider. Joan smiled, seeing her horse. She hadn't seen her in two years, or if her family was to be believed, only a day. But regardless, Joan saddled her mare up before jumping on._

_They set out, hooves pounding against the ground. They rode as fast as they could and Joan pushed the limits of her mare. They rode into the forest nearby and dodged slowed only a little, just enough to stay careful, but they still rode hard and fast. They came to a stream that Joan had never seen before and stopped only just in time before the two of them crashed into the stream. Joan, figuring this was as good a place as any to stop, dismounted, and let Amelia drink and graze._

_Joan, tired as her mare and breathing as hard, collapsed near the stream and began to scoop water onto her face and neck. She sighed, feeling a sense of happiness that she hadn't experienced in her Reach apocalypse nightmare. She looked into the river, wondering if she had messed her hair only to see that her hair was now a deep red that resembled a forest fire burning through the forest. She gasped; the irises of her eyes were now a bright golden color, same as the sun. She flinched back, startling Amelia._

_"What is this?" she whispered to herself._

_"That is what you will look like by the end of the year." A voice came from behind her causing Joan to scream. She turned around standing up to see no one there other than Amelia who had returned to her grazing. "Over here," came the voice again and Joan followed it to a small, tiny red bird. And not just any tiny red bird, her tiny red bird; the same one that had comforted her during all those sleepless nights when she wanted to run away to get out of the Reach's control though she knew it would have been useless._

_"Who are you?" she asked, with a mixture of horror and curiosity in her voice._

_"I am Reach."_

_"What?"_

_"Pardon me. I have no name. But I am of Reach origin."_

_"Damn it," Joan cursed to herself. Of course the same thing that had comforted her throughout every trial and hardship in her life would be something of the Reach. She sighed. She was getting soft if she hadn't realized that that bird was not from Earth. Joan gestured to everything "Care to all of this?"_

_"This is a dream in which you are seeing yourself as you will be by the end of your transformation."_

_"What transformation?"_

_"The transformation from a regular human to a Reach controlled metahuman."_

_The words to retaliate caught in Joan's throat. Reach controlled? She would never ever serve the Reach. She couldn't. That would be a fate worse than death. "No."_

_"Yes. Slowly, over time as your metagene develops, you will come to the realization that the Reach are your saviors. You will bow to them and praise them. You will become one of them."_

_Joan nearly fainted. That was impossible. "What was your role in all of this?" she managed to cough out._

_"I was created for the sole purpose of finding humans with an unactivated metagene. My mission was to activate the metagene and alert the Reach to your presence by being absorbed into your body."_

_Joan tried not to throw up as she thought about that stupid bird inside of her. She sat down, her heart heavy as her suspicion that this was a dream realized. She had always known from the moment she woke up, but a small part of her had hoped that everything else was the dream and this reality. "Why?"_

_"The scarabs were proven to have weakness on this planet when the humans you call Young Justice tried unsuccessfully to deactivate the scarab attached to a native from this planet."_

_"No, why me?" Joan wondered if those were tears falling down her face._

_"Because you had potential."_

_"Potential for what?"_

_"Many things. Potential to be the champion of the Reach. Potential to defeat the Green Lanterns. Potential for leading the Reach armies in glorious victory over the conquest of the galaxy."_

_"I won't do that." Joan felt her resolve hardening. She wiped the tears away from her face and walked up to the bird. "I will never do that. If you think for one second that I will do anything that you want me to, then you are sorely mistaken._

_The bird looked at her. Then it grew into a monstrous size to the point where it looked at Joan in the eyes. "But you will. I was absorbed to ensure that."_

_The bird faded away. Instead, an arm grabbed Joan from behind, putting her in a headlock. Joan gasped as she watched the forest fade away and fade into the the alleyway in Gotham where she had received her superhero mask. She struggled, fighting the man, but as on that same night, she was helpless. Only _he_ could save her._

_"You're wrong about that," the man whispered in her ear with the same voice as the bird. "Your friend that you met on this night, he will never save you. It was only because he thought you might be worth something in the future that he saved you. And now that you are a servant for the Reach, he will regret that decision for all of eternity and wonder why he even bothered rescuing you who was dumb enough to get yourself caught in the first place."_

_"He _will_ save me. He _will_ save me," she repeated to herself over and over again. "He did so that night, he will do it again." Though she held onto this hope, a small part of her heard the voice to the man and trembled in fear of it._

_"Joan Hayes, by the time a year is over, you will be a slave to the Reach. You might not be now, but you will be. You will remain silent because imagine what they will do to you if they find out about your situation. Imagine how they will shun you or kill you mercilessly. Imagine your family." And image of Henry and her parents leapt into Joan's mind. She cried at the thought. "They will disown you. Everyone you love will throw you out like you deserve. _You will be ours.._."_

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	16. Chapter 16: The Only Explanation

Barbara looked down the window to where Joan was lying in the quarantine room. Joan was flushed, her face bright red matching the thin red fuzz on the top of her head. Sweat was rolling down her face and her body had been undergoing convulsions for the past couple of hours. Barbara winced as Zatanna began a series of spells to try to bring the fever down. Barbara turned her head from the window as a certain Dick Grayson walked through the door with his face contorted in an expression Barbara had not seen in quite some time.

"How is she doing?" Barbara heard the concern in his voice.

"She has a fever of 106 degrees which has been steadily climbing since she's got here. The proteins inside her body are already beginning to cook apart, but they seem to be regenerating themselves. Kid Flash mentioned her incredible abilities to heal, but I honestly didn't believe him until now. It seems as if the higher her temperature runs, the faster her body heals itself. However, I'm not sure it can stay that high without suffering serious brain damage."

"I thought you said she would heal herself."

"If the brain fries only to regenerate itself, everything that makes her Joan, will burn away. Her memories will be gone, Dick. I'm not even sure if she would be anything more than a vegetable." Barbara looked back at the computer which had beeped viciously. Her fever had risen another degree. She sighed, hearing Nightwing start to pace in the small observation room. She tried to make him laugh like she used to. She said in a joking manner, "You only check up on special teammates. Who is she?"

To her chagrin, Dick did not smile. Instead, he seemed to get sadder. "She's someone I thought I would never see again."

Before Barbara could pry for more questions, Zatanna called up into the observation room. Her face was grim and Barbara felt a sinking feeling in her heart. Zatanna spoke into the microphone, "I've done all I can and I think I am only making it worse. I'm sorry, Dick." Zatanna walked out of the room. Dick finally stopped pacing and sat down in a chair, running his hands through his hair. Zee walked through the door of the observation room shivering. "So much warmer in here," she commented, trying to ease the mood.

"It should be the same temperature up here as down there," Barbara said, confusion echoing in her voice. There was absolutely no reason that there would be any difference in the temperature of the two rooms. Though she tried to think of a reason, none came to mind.

"Well, it was getting colder in there. Half the spells I used were to keep warm."

An idea sparked in Barbara's head at her friend's side note. She looked at Dick wondering if it could be true. His brow furrowed, understanding she had an idea, but not knowing what it could possibly be. He stood up and Barbara wheeled over to a computer on the other side of the room and began to type away furiously. Both Zatanna and Dick crouched over her shoulders. Dick saw what she was looking at, then back at her. She nodded. "Go get Wally. I want to make sure I'm not thinking of a wild whim."

"What's your idea, Babs?" Zatanna asked when Dick left, still confused as the graphs and tiny letters only left her with a slight headache.

"You said that you were casting spells to keep yourself warm while at the same time, you thought were also making it worse. We have tried everything from the latest medical treatments proven to lower fevers to alien technology to magic. Nothing has worked. Her fever has only risen. Her body rejected antibiotics so we stopped those treatments a while ago. Now the latter options have only one thing in common." Barbara rolled over to another section of computers and began to type away furiously over there.

"Which is?" Zatanna was trying to piece together what her friend was saying.

"Energy. The alien technology we have, while effective, gave off huge amounts of energy. Her fever rose three and a half degrees. I brushed it off as it not working and called you in. Your magic requires huge amount of energy. Half of it was to boost the temperature in that room and that raised her fever even more."

"Okay...?"

Nightwing returned before Barbara could continue with Wally who was still dazed. He had a goofy smile on his face and an irked look in his eyes and Barbara guessed that he had been with Artemis and sad to leave her, even if is was for only a few moment. He walked up to Barbara and glared at her. He was mad at her as well for taking him away from his fiance. "You called?"

"Wally, did the Reach say anything about Joan's metagene? Anything that wasn't typical?"

"Let's see... The Scientist said that is was exceptional... I assumed it's the third type of gene since she has never seen it before. Though I suppose it could be the second since she was struck by lightning and that could have been the imprint her gene was waiting for..."

"No, it couldn't be. Otherwise we would be experiencing electrical storms and power failures." As the words left Barbara's mouth, the lights began to flicker which made Wally smirk. Barbara, though now Oracle, had learned the signature Bat Glare and silenced Wally. She looked back down at one of the computers. "The temperature has dropped to nearly freezing since Zee came back up. Her fever has risen one more degree. I don't think her gene controls electricity. I think it controls thermal energy."

Silence fell in the room. Nightwing sighed as he grasped what Babs had been thinking since the beginning. Zatanna's mouth dropped. She knew enough of physics to know the consequences. Wally sat down on a chair as the realization of what would happen hit him. Zee pointed out, "But I thought that metagenes could only control so much. Being able to manipulate the flow of thermal energy... that seems too powerful..."

Wally sighed and leaned back in his chair. He finally understood the Scientist's words. "She is the first."

"What was that?" Barbara asked.

"On the Reach ship, the Scientist said she was the first of a new, more powerful, generation of metahumans. I thought she was referencing her ability to heal." Wally facepalmed. "I feel like an idiot."

"Her ability to heal would tie into her manipulation of thermal energy," Nightwing said. "It looks like all of the energy travels through her body. All that energy would cook her alive unless she could rapidly repair herself."

"So what do we do?" Zatanna asked. "Bring the temperature down to zero?"

Nightwing shook his head. "The only place you can maybe find a temperature close to zero Kelvins is the space in between galaxies where there is literally nothing. And even if we could bring it down to zero K, atoms would begin to collapse."

"So we keep the heat running. Only the bare minimum though. Her fever will get higher, but she should survive."

Nightwing was about to point something out when all the computers began to beep ferociously. Barbara looked at them all, her eyes widening. Joan's heart had stopped. The few nurses left shivering in the room raced over to Joan and began to perform CPR. The team looked out from the observation room, unable to do anything but watch. Barbara saw Nightwing about to leave, presumably to go down and help when his communicator pinged. He answered anxiously. Barbara saw his face go white as he responded to get everyone out there, ready to take them down. He turned it off and looked at Babs.

"The Reach found us."

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	17. Chapter 17: Betrayal of the Reach Part 1

The Scientist looked at herself in the mirror, unable to recognize the person that stood before her. Instead of her usual uniform adorned with honors and rank, she now wore the plain red armor of a soldier. She sighed. She trusted her mate to keep his word. But as she had begun to understand a mother's love for her children and the pain at their loss. She now understood the responsibility to protect her young and simply stated, she had failed her children. She needed to get them back. And besides, the Warrior and the rest of the fools on this ship would not be able to ensure the survival of her egg. They knew the consequences, but they did not know of the pain of them.

She heard a squadron of soldiers outside and joined them. They did not notice her joining and they would most likely not notice at all. She saw the details on their uniforms and knew that these were pilots. She smiled underneath her mask. Good. She was with the right people. She followed them as they navigated the hallways of the ship, mimicking their every movement as not to draw suspicion to herself. Within a few moment, they had reached the hangar where they would depart and they lined up, ready to receive orders and leave. The Scientist felt a small flutter of joy. It was time to rescue her young.

The Warrior showed up in his black armor and for the first time, the Scientist saw the power behind. She had always known the capabilities of a Warrior, but she had never any reason to fear before now. Before now, she was virtually untouchable to him. But now, if she made one wrong move, she could be killed and no one would ever know what happened to her. She felt her body begin to tremble and immediately stopped herself. She refused to give herself away.

The Warrior's little brother showed; he would be joining them. The Warrior began to speak. "Now, pests. We have the unique opportunity to finally destroy this Young Justice meat. The coordinates are in your fighters. Take flight and annihilate them all." The Warrior, both Black and Blue, extended their wings, and jumped out the hangar. They would be leading the mission.

A thousand thoughts ran through the Scientist's mind. He had not mentioned anything about the egg. Why had he not mentioned the egg? He had known of it. She was there when he received orders. So what hadn't he mentioned her egg? As she boarded her fighter and left the hangar, there was only a single thought that could explain the Warrior's actions. He had known and said nothing so that the egg would be destroyed.

She followed the rest of the ships. They would lead her to the headquarters of the human team if nothing else would. The Warrior was correct in that the coordinates were already programmed into the ship. He was incorrect in the making an enemy of her.

She looked back and saw the ship leave her sight. She turned back to the rest of the squadron of fighters and turned on her weapons system. The rest of the fighters followed her lead most likely thinking that it was a little premature to activate weapons, but it would not hurt to activate them anyways. She smiled maniacally. No one messed with her children.

She targeted on the closest fighter. Part of her knew she was betraying the Reach and if anyone found out, she would be killed without a second thought. Her mate would be sad; he had called her mejuta. They had a bond that was as strong as a mother's love. He might be killed along with her if he did anything that went against her execution. He might be killed for simply being the mate of a traitor. But at this point, she no longer cared. She would get her children back. And she would not be caught. She fired on the fighter.

It was destroyed at once causing panic among the other pilots. They was no sign of any enemy fighters on their radar, but the shot had to have come from somewhere. They scrambled, trying to confuse any of the unseen enemies. The Scientist chuckled. This would have no effect on her. She targets the next fighter. She fires.

Again and again she fires. After the fourth shot, the Warriors had turned around and located the enemy. Their faces contorted in surprise and anger when they saw that it was one their own that was shooting their forces down. They began to fire on the enemy fighter, but the Scientist outmaneuvered them. She continued to shoot down fighters and dodging the Warriors. All the while, she continued to move forward to the coordinates of the stolen ship and the Young Justice that had stolen her egg.

With most of the fighters gone, the Scientist had only the Warriors to worry about and though she had outmaneuvered them before, they were slowly adjusting to her actions. By the time the mountain that the stolen fighter signal was coming from came into view, only pure luck was keeping her alive. She could not keep this up forever. And to make matters worse, Young Justice was appearing on her screens, ready to defend their home. As her mind paused on what to do for a split second, it was all the time that the Warriors needed. They shot down her fighter and she went tumbling rapidly to the ground.

* * *

The crash knocked her out but only for a moment. When her eyes opened slowly, she was being dragged out of the debris of her fighter by the hands of the Warrior. She resisted as much as she could, scratching and clawing the Warrior's armor even though she knew it would do no good. She screeched and the forest went silent at the sound.

"It is my pleasure to end a traitor such as you," the Warrior said with his little brother right behind him. He raised his arm as it changed into a scythe blade. She struggled, but the Blue Warrior came behind her and held her still. The Scientist felt a small teardrop fall down her face under her mask. It was not her fear of death, but rather her fear that her egg would never hatch. That she would never get the chance to be a mother to them and care for them and watch them grow up and be the powerful leaders that they were always meant to be. She closed her eyes, wishing for a chance to at least see her egg one last time before dying though she knew she never would.

The scythe never came down. The Warrior was hanging in midair by a martian and was tossed to the sky. The Blue Beetle was motionless as magic constricted around his body and held him still. The Scientist opened her eyes to see Young Justice all around her coming out of the trees. A man came out wearing all black with blue accents on his chest. His black hair was shaggy and though his eyes were hidden behind his black mask, there was no doubting the anger in his eyes upon seeing the Reach. The Scientist recognized him immediately. He was the leader of Young Justice. This man was Nightwing.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	18. Chapter 18: Betrayal of the Reach Part 2

Nightwing saw the Reach soldier before him. He felt conflicted, unsure if he should trust him or not. He had just saved the team's lives, but it was no reason to assume he was friendly. Nightwing, holding his eskimas, slowly began to circle him, watching for any movements from the red suit. He remained silent, his eyes narrowed. A thousands scenarios ran through his head but none explained why a Reach soldier had destroyed its own. Or why Nightwing felt the need to save it.

"Get Blue restrained back at the mountain," he said to his team, not taking his eyes off their prisoner for a second.

"What about Black Beetle?" Impulse asked, racing over to the unconscious body. A groan from him though showed that he would not remain unconscious much longer. Impulse ran back over to his previous position next to Beast Boy who looked equally put off by Black's noise.

"What do you think?" Nightwing asked the soldier who had remained silent.

"Kill him," the soldier hissed. It was a female's voice. Nightwing cocked his head. There was no mistaking the hostility and hatred in her voice.

"Why?" he asked, his voice still and void of all emotion. He knew enough of the Reach that they could even use the curiosity in his voice to beguile him.

"He is your enemy. Does anything else matter?" The soldier looked away from Nightwing. He ginned slyly.

"Impulse, get Kid Flash. The two of you will be taking Black as far away from here you can. But don't get yourselves caught. If Black shows any signs of waking up, don't take any chances. Ditch him and come back. Take the scenic route home though." Nightwing didn't take his eyes off of the soldier, but heard Impulse take off and knew Kid would be there in a moment or two. He enjoyed the loyalty and unquestioning faith his teammates had in his leadership. "Now, why do you really want Black dead?"

"Where is my egg?" Her voice dropped into a hiss darker than before when she wanted Black dead. Nightwing crouched down close enough to look her in the eye. He was confused at first but immediately he remembered the 'souvenir' that Kid Flash had brought back. Could Wally really be that stupid?

He heard the footsteps of Kid and Impulse as they approached. The soldier turned and as her eyes landed on KF, she lunged towards him screeching murder. Nightwing backed out of the way and KF dodged the attack. Nightwing grabbed a pair of cuffs from his belt and made his way towards the soldier. Kid zipped around in circles, trying to distract her long enough for Nightwing to come in. However, as soon as he was close enough to cuff her, she changed focus and began to attack at him. It was no longer as wild or desperate as when she attacked Kid; it now carried the deadly precision of a soldier despite a few wild hits that she was lucky he didn't catch her in time.

Nightwing winced as her fingers clawed his face leaving blood to drip down his face. He hastily wiped some away, but now his face was smeared with the crimson blood. He felt his face begin to sag and an alarm went off in his head. His fingers began to tingle and he knew he would have to finish up quickly. He dodged her next attack, grabbed her shoulder, and spun her around. He quickly cuffed her and they both collapsed on the ground exhausted. Kid looked at Nightwing, but he motioned his friend away. He and Impulse had a mission to complete. Kid nodded and left. Wondergirl came up and placed an inhibitor collar on the soldier while Robin went over to help Nightwing stand.

"You really think this will stop me?" she hissed.

Aqualad answered, "It's a generic collar that only electrocutes. You will find yourself unconscious if you do not come with us willingly and cooperate."

She slowly stood up and made a step too quickly. Beast Boy, who had been holding the controller, pressed a button and she fell down to the ground, unconscious. Aqualad, Nightwing, and the rest of the team glared at him.

"What? I've been waiting to do that all month."

Barbara stared at Joan as she lay in her bed. The nurses had managed to keep her heart beating, but now she was now only alive because of life support. Barbara looked away. She had seen too many kids and adults hooked up to machines like that and it never ended well. She herself had been in Joan's place, fighting for her life after the Reach took the use of her legs away. She remembered Batman's training techniques of clearing the mind to prevent herself from remembering too much of those painful months. She was hoping for something to distract her when Artemis walked in.

"Hey. Let's get you out of here. You could use some breakfast," Artemis said, as gently as she could.

"It's morning?" Barbara asked, surprised. Only a few hours had passed since she had eaten dinner. Right? Or was that lunch? Barbara shook her head. She really did need to get out if she couldn't remember what her last meal had been.

"Yeah. You worked straight through the night. Come one." Artemis notified the nurses down below and took Barbara out of the small observation room. Barbara was glad for the distraction, but it was a distraction. She needed to find a way to save Joan. They had been trying to everything and though Barbar suspected that Joan was on her own now, the thought did not settle easily on Babs' mind. By the time they reached the mess hall, all she was trying to do was not think about Joan's funeral arrangements.

"Two omelets, please," Artemis asked the cooks and after a minute of waiting, they were sitting down with breakfast. Artemis ate hers happily, but Barbara merely picked at hers after eating a bite or two. Despite Batman's training, her thoughts kept on returning to Joan.

"Okay, what's up? Come on, Babs. I've known you forever. Something's up. Is it Dick?" Artemis inquired setting her empty plate off to the side. Barbara smiled weakly. She and Artemis had always gotten along well even though they had not been on missions together often before the Reach attacked. It was hard sometimes, having a friend who knew her so well, but at times like this, it made her grateful to have an ear willing to listen. She took a deep breath before trying to explain what was really going on inside her heart.

"No. At least, not exactly. It's more of the way he looks at Joan. I haven't seen him look at anyone like that since..."

"Since you two broke up," Artemis finished.

Barbara nodded. "I'm not jealous of her or sad that I ended it with Dick. It just wasn't working out between us. It's more like... like I'm afraid of him getting hurt again. I know it sounds silly or a lot like jealousy, which it isn't, but I don't want to see him in so much pain like before. I'm not sure if Joan would do that, but I don't want it to happen at all."

"Does Dick know you feel this way?"

"Dick doesn't even know what he's feeling towards Joan yet," Barbara chuckled. Dick knew his mind better than anyone, but he rarely knew his heart. It was something that had always interfered at first with the beginning of their relationship. She smiled, remembering how Dick would often think that he was in love with girls when he was a teenager only to find out that he really didn't even like them. He admitted to her once that it took him over a year to realize that he had been truly in love with her since the beginning. Barbara whispered so that only Artemis could hear her, "I can't tell him the real reason I broke up with him. It would only tear him to pieces. And it would kill me."

Artemis nodded. She could only imagine Dick's reaction too well. Though it pained her to see her friend in such pain, she knew that Babs was making the right decision. For now at least. She was about to say something when her communicator beeped. It was Nightwing. "Speaking of the devil. They're back. Nightwing is in the infirmary with temporary paralysis. The others are taking the prisoner back...? What?"

"Looks like we better go down and figure out what happened," Barbara said a she began to wheel herself away from the table and towards the briefing room where someone would be waiting to tell her and Artemis the details. She glanced back only once to make sure Artemis was following her before continuing her path all the way to the briefing room where Aqualad was waiting along with Static. Barbara smiled. Though very different in many ways, the two had bonded. And the handful of mission they had been on together only strengthened that bond.

"Kaldur, what happened?" Artemis asked. Her voice was calm, but everyone could see the anxiety in her stance.

"One of the Reach's own destroyed the vast majority of their fighters. When we arrived, Black and Blue Beetles were about to execute the soldier responsible. Blue is being brought back to a unique holding cell which will mask his energy signature and prevent the reach from finding us once more. The soldier however is not entirely on our side and is likewise being placed in a cell while she is being interrogated." Kaldur changed his uniform from stealth tech to its regular color variations.

"Where's Wally?"

"Kid Flash is with Impulse taking Black as far away as possible while he is unconscious. Do not worry, Artemis. They have orders to leave him if he shows any signs of waking up." Kaldur walked over and laid a comforting hand on Artemis' shoulder.

"And Nightwing?" Barbara asked. She knew that her voice sounded worried which while she was, it sounded more so than usual. She sighed inside. Talking to Artemis for those few brief minutes really brought up a lot of old feelings.

"It would appear that the Reach have a paralysis poison in their claws. He was scratched by the rogue Reach," Kaldur answered as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He was neither surprised nor taken aback by this information. Barbara sighed in relief, earning her a curious glance from Artemis.

"What possessed her to destroy her entire squadron of fighter to protect us and not be one of us?" Barbara could not understand the situation. It would seem that at least on Earth, one was on one side or another. There was no in between or neutral parties in this war. There couldn't be.

"She mentioned that we have her egg." Barbara felt her heart skip a beat at Kaldur's words.

"You mean the souvenir Wally brought back?" Artemis exclaimed. When Kaldur nodded yes, she facepalmed, wondering the absolute stupidity of her fiance and began to mumble curses under her breath. Barbara smiled slightly at her friend's affectionate attitude.

"Perhaps it was not a bad thing. Maybe we can use it as a bargaining chip with the soldier," Barbara thought out loud. "She could tell us how the Reach found us in the first place and more. Perhaps she could even tell how to bring down the Reach."

"Are you sure," Static asked. "I mean, that seems like a lot to ask of her. Even if she isn't buddy buddy with her own kind, she still attacked us out there."

"Trust me," Barbara said. "A mother will do anything for her children."

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	19. Chapter 19: Finding Her Note

Henry woke up suddenly. He looked over at his alarm clock, one of the few pieces of the old life he was allowed to keep. It said it was about five in the morning, much earlier than he was used to. In fact, he had almost an hour before it should have gone off. He laid his head back down on his pillow and tried to go back to sleep, but he was wide awake. He thought about it, but nothing explained this unusual awakeness. Sighing, he got out of bed and walked into the kitchen. Maybe he could sneak in a little snack in before his parents came down and made breakfast. God knew he could use some extra food.

Being one of the few children on the entire planet who going to the Reach school, he had certain privileges, such as he and sometimes his family got more food to eat. However, it was never enough for him to grow to his full body like his dad. The Reach did not want anyone stronger than them, especially among the human slaves. Henry was sad, mostly because it meant he would never see if he could actually grow taller than his father without the nutrients he needed.

As he made his way down the hall into the kitchen, he noticed that it was unusually quiet. He knew Nightwing and Tim were early risers so it explained why when he woke, they weren't in his room, but they didn't seem to be in the kitchen. Henry's brain began to spin as he ran the last couple of feet out into the kitchen where a note. He saw the neat handwriting of he guessed Nightwing or Tim. He flipped it over to see the messy slanted scribble of Joan. No...

_It can't be true!_

He looked around the corner in the front hall where they accepted guests. They weren't there. Henry felt his heart jump into his throat and his eyes began to burn. He ran back down the hall into Joan's room. It was empty. A few clothes were resting on the floor, but it was as clean as usual. And she wasn't there. Henry fell down on his knees and began to cry there. His older sister, the only one he had trusted with everything, was gone. Tears silently slid down his face. He had no idea how long he had been sobbing, but eventually his parents came out of their bedroom and saw him. His mother took him in her arms immediately.

"What's wrong, baby?" she asked, her voice like soothing honey that numbed the pain. It was all Henry could do to point to the kitchen where the note still laid. He couldn't say out loud, say that Joan and her friend's had just left them without even saying a proper goodbye. Maybe if he didn't say it out loud, it wouldn't be true, it was just a bad dream. Maybe if he just kept quiet and acted like nothing was wrong, nothing would be. But even with his eyes closed, he saw Joan's handwriting all too clearly. All too painfully.

He heard the heavy footsteps of his dad running down the hall. Matthias had sensed it too, a quietness in the house. Henry counted to ten, knowing that would be all the time his dad would need to read the note. He stopped crying and left his mother's arms and joined his father, who seemed to have turned to stone. Elizabeth joined them and she bawled when she saw Joan's handwriting. Mattias sat down, unable to take in the words. Henry watched them. They had lost their child. He had lost a sister. While he didn't think his pain was easier to bear than theirs, he knew he would have to help his parents through this.

Henry picked up the note and read the side that Nightwing had written on. "Hayes family. The Reach know Joan escaped. And they will come here first to interrogate you all. I don't know exactly what will happen, but keep your cover simple. They might try and separate you. Playing dumb is the best way to go. Tell them the truth; that you don't know where Joan is. Good luck."

"What does that bastard know?" Henry's mother hissed, her voice turned from honey into poison.

"Elizabeth, we both know that Joan would have gone regardless of whether or not Nightwing ever came," Matthias calmed his wife. "At least now, we are a safehouse and might see her again. She's doing her part as we are to help end this tyranny. Do not put all the blame on Nightwing. He will take care of our daughter."

Henry wasn't sure about his mom, but he felt comforted by his dad's words. Slightly. he was still hurt that Joan had left without saying goodbye to him, but he supposed it was for a good reason. He sighed, and inhaled sharply as someone knocked on the door.

"Elizabeth, go back to our room and dry your eyes. Henry, you too. We don't want to give away anything, even if it's one of our neighbors. I'll get the door." Henry started to head back, but as he heard his dad opening the door, he also heard the buzzing voice of the Reach. Greetings were exclaimed. Henry wiped his eyes and tried to make them look as normal as possible. His dad called out and he along with his mom headed back into the kitchen where two Reach officials were standing. One wore blue protective body armor, and the other purple.

The one wearing the purple armor had piercing red eyes and she took a seat at the table. She gladly took the cup of water when Henry's mom offered. She was smiling too eagerly. Henry tried not to visible shudder and remembered all of his training from the school. He bowed respectfully, careful not to make eye contact or speak unless spoken too.

"I am sure you are wondering why I and my associate are here." Her voice was high and hurt Henry's ears. He saw the symbol on the sleeve of her armor and instantly knew who she was. His family was in deep trouble. She was an Interrogator.

They are the most ruthless of the Reach next to the Beetles. They were actually engineered long ago by scientists to be as deadly as possible. They had claws instead of nails which were poisoned. Henry made a note not to tell his mom to destroy the cup she was using. Interrogators also had acidic spit and serrated teeth, though they preferred other tools for their interrogations. Their hearing was adept enough to hear a mouse's heart beat over a mile away. They picked up everything, including what one had had for dinner a month ago. Rumors were spread that they could even hear a person's thoughts. They were the perfect hunter among the Reach, so successful that their own kind feared them. Interrogators were ruthless, not because they had to be, _but because they enjoyed it._

Henry knew that there was much more to this perfect killer than what he was taught in school. He also knew that Nightwing didn't know about them or else he would not have suggested that the family lie or play innocent. She had probably already picked up the frantic breathing of the family and the erratic heartbeats. Henry knew that while they might have fooled a normal Reach official, they could never even to hope to fool an Interrogator.

"I am here to address an issue that is growing among your race," she hissed. "Within the last hundred years or so, it would seem that your race is deteriorating. The Reach mark these deteriorations with anomalies known as a metagene. They are usually quite harmless to others, only causing injuries to the poor soul who has it. However, a few understand the metagene and use it to harm others."

Henry's mind raced. The Interrogator looked at him, knowing he was on the verge of panic. He had learned of the metagene in school and understood that it was the cause of most superheroes' powers, but not always. Metahumans were always taken away for "harvesting," a process that scares Henry. He remembered Joan and wondered if she had the metagene. He prayed right then and there that the Reach would never get their hands on her and was thankful that she had escaped when she did.

"Last night, one of these dangerous metahumans escaped from our holding facilities and has been on a rampage. We were wondering if you had any information regarding this metahuman? Perhaps something you brushed aside, but it still bothers you? Perhaps your daughter could tell us something?"

"Our daughter was taken away," Matthias growled. "You took her away to heal her after she was struck by lightning. She hasn't returned since."

Henry saw how it took everything his father had not to strike the Reach. He thanked God though that his father didn't because that would have ended in his father's death. Or worse. And the Interrogator saw it too. She smiled even more frighteningly, showing her teeth that could tear flesh easier that Henry could have torn through a piece of paper.

"What about you, Henry? According to my records, you are an intelligent boy. You are even going to school. Have you heard or seen anything out of the ordinary?"

"No," Henry knew to keep it simple. Though he knew it would be futile, he had to stall her as long as possible.

"Are you sure? Something that a lesser human might have missed?"

"Positive." Henry glanced at his parents and he saw that they knew that he knew something that they didn't. He wished he could have explained to them what was happening, but knew he couldn't.

"Henry, you have a bright future ahead of you. Please, tell us something if you think it's important."

It was Henry's turn to smile. "You want to know what I think?"

"Of course."

"I think you can go to hell," Henry shouted.

The Interrogator smiled as a cat who had cornered its prey. "Wrong answer."

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	20. Chapter 20: Broken

The Reach Scientist stared at the four gray walls surrounding her. They had not changed since she had been most ungraciously dragged there several hours ago. Part of her hoped they would after Young Justice injected her with some sort of clear fluid, to assure her that she was dreaming and nothing they said was real. But all of her senses were telling her that they had not changed and she was very much trapped. She sighed. So much for revenge.

She began to pace, her hand lightly trailing the walls, still hoping for them to change. She had seen the team members walk through one of the walls, but she found herself unable to pass through like they were. She wandered, almost placidly, though her muscles were always ready for someone to come in. She smiled, showing her sharp teeth to anyone who was watching. Yes, she would kill who ever came into the room. She would use their life to take back what was rightfully hers and leave. And if she was feeling generous, she might leave their location a secret.

She glanced across the room and saw a shimmer on the opposite wall. It was beautiful and she stopped walking. Her arm fell to her side and to her dismay, she felt her entire body relax as her mind raptured around the glittering wall. She wanted to reach out and touch it. Her body refused to obey. The shimmering was disrupted by a person walking through. Or rather, rolling. She was female with long auburn hair and icy blue eyes. The Scientist snapped back to attention and began to lunge for the human's throat with her claws.

"Stop."

The Scientist felt her limbs betray her and she halted her attack. She stood there, no more inclined to attack the woman than a newborn child. The Scientist tried to ask a question, but her mouth would not obey her. The woman smiled.

"Remember me?" she asked, her voice as cold as her eyes.

The Scientist shook her head. Though every one of her human subjects was important, she would be foolish to say if she remembered every single one.

"Pity. Do you know why you can't attack me?"

The Scientist nodded. Or at least, she could hazard a guess as to why. As the thought finally made it through her mind, she felt like a student again, studying her rigorous courses back at the Academy. How could she not have realized it sooner? Granted, increased confusion was a side effect of the technology. Somehow, Young Justice had found Reach SOMs. It was a small spherical device which entered into the bloodstream and attached itself to the brainstem. From there, it caused confusion, agony, and was perfect for an interrogation.

"We found the technology in one of our raids. We had no idea of course at the time what they were, but thanks to my kidnapping, we now know exactly what they are capable of." The woman's eyes showed particular malice. However, the Scientist was not afraid. She knew that a SOM can only last for so long and this team had used up much of their time already. No, she was only concerned that she would admit that she loved someone. Or someones. She was concerned that they would use it against her. They had already stolen her young. She closed her eyes. She prayed that she would not have to watch them die.

"What do you want?" the Scientist managed to ask.

"Payback. But fortunately for you, I have other concerns right now. Do you know this girl?" The woman handed her a picture of a girl. The Scientist recognized her immediately. She knew her alright. She had a full head of hair and the rounder face of childhood, but that did not change the resemblance. This was the girl that she had had only a few days prior. The girl that would serve the Reach and replace their reliance of the Beetles. This is the girl that would change the world.

"She's dying. We can't stop it."

The Scientist laughed out loud. How humorous it was that this girl was asking her. Perhaps the situation was not as desperate as it seemed. She smiled. This woman before her was now very familiar. She had that same look of defeat as earlier when the Scientist had told her had broken her heart. This woman had been strong. She had withstood the brink of what a human would physically handle. The Scientist had used a SOM on her. It was no wonder this woman was now in a wheelchair after she had spent time with an Interrogator. And all it took was the destruction of her heart to break her. It was why the Scientist had swore never to love, though she knew even back then that she would never be able to keep that vow.

"What makes you think that I would help you?" she hissed.

"Simple. We have your egg."

Next a picture of an egg, _her egg_, was in her hands. Her face softened as the anger inside her rose. She rose to attack the human again.

"Sit."

The Scientist growled as her body once again betrayed her and she sat. This woman had learned. She was just as broken as she was when she was told that he had died. The Scientist smiled despite herself. Though she had failed in extracting any useful information from the woman, she had succeeded in breaking her. She could never again be useful to Young Justice.

"I am prepared to release you along with your egg if you heal my teammate. Your memory of this place will be wiped of course, but only of here. This is the agreement. Do we have a deal?"

"We have a deal, Batgirl." The Scientist smiled. She finally had the upper hand.

The woman however likewise smiled with equal hatred and viciousness. "It's Oracle, now."

* * *

The Scientist was dragged to the room with the girl. She had changed since she had been with the Scientist. The girl had a thin layer of red fuzz on her head and her skin was dangerously flushed. Her body glistened with sweat as it rolled off of her. Her bed was soaked with sweat and it pooled around her body in some areas where the sheets could hold no more liquid. The girl was close to death, but the Scientist also knew that the girl would not die. She could not. No. She was just beginning the transformation that would last several cycles. By this time next year, she would be a tool for the Reach. She is the first of a new generation.

Despite the girl sweating and her flushed skin, it was quite cold in the room. Freezing even. The Scientist wondered what the girl's metagene was. She only had the preliminary test results and those had provided such mixed results that it was incomprehensible. With curiosity, the she approached the girl.

"Wait," Oracle called out. The Scientist was forced to stop. "We know what's wrong. She is manipulating all of the thermal energy around her into her body. How do we stop her?"

The Scientist continued to observe the girl under the Oracle's watchful eyes. She was surprised the metagene. She truly was a first among humans. There would be no easy solution for this. "Have you ever thought of waiting it out? Though her fever is not natural in the slightest, she has the capability to survive it."

"She'll lose everything about herself. And there is no guarantee that she will survive."

"Were you not the one who was always telling me how you had faith in your teammates. It seems as though you have too little now in her."

"And you have too much."

"She will survive this. And who is to say that her memory loss won't be for the better? This way, she could no longer hurt her family."

Oracle was visibly shaken by this. She came nose to nose with the Scientist. How she only wished the SOM would wear off quicker. "Fix her."

The Scientist whispered, "No."

The Oracle made a signal to behind a mirror. A moment later the egg was brought in by a young male with short black hair. It had lost it's beauty and was no longer shining as it had been while on the ship. The Scientist felt her heart stop. She stared at the Oracle.

"Robin. Destroy it."

The boy Robin raised his arms. The Scientist watched in disbelief until the final moment. She shouted, "NO! Wait. Do not kill my babies."

Robin turned around in surprise. Even the Oracle raised her eyebrows. They had not known that the egg contained twins. The Scientist scorned herself. How could she have been so foolish as to let them know that. She turned back to the girl on the table.

"There is a pressure point on a metahuman that can deactivate their powers temporarily. It only lasts a few hours, but in this case, it will give Joan a chance to find a balance in her powers. Let me show you." The Scientist grabbed the girl's head. She grabbed the back of the neck. "Though in an ordinary human, this would most likely result in their death, in a metahuman, there exists a small gland that controls their powers."

"I thought the powers came from the gene," Oracle interrupted.

"The gene allows for the powers to develop. The gland is what makes it possible. Part of my task aboard the ship was to see if it was possible to safely remove the gland and place into another life form." The Scientist pressed as hard as she could on the gland. It was small and nodular against the nape of the neck. It stood out to only those who had the experience. Joan screamed, but immediately, a wave of heat was released into the room. Instead of the freezing cold with ice crystals forming everywhere, it was burning hot with the computers flickering in the extreme heat. Oracle and Robin turned away for only a moment.

"Was it possible?" Robin asked.

"Yes. Now I have done all I can for your teammate. May I have my egg and leave? We did make a deal."

Oracle narrowed her eyes. The Scientist could see that she was debating on whether or not to honor the deal. "We made a deal," the Scientist reminded her. She was not about to lose her children. Oracle turned around to Robin and nodded. Robin raised his arms once more. The Scientist could only watch in agony as her egg came crashing down to the ground, shattering into a thousand small pieces with two limp forms amid the remains.

The Scientist saw the feeble movements of her young as they tried to move, tried to live, before they went limp once more. The Scientist felt a rage burn inside her, deeper that any hatred or even emotion she had even felt before. She ignored the impulse inside her to stand still and be unable to take her revenge. She attacked the Oracle.

The Robin stood in her way first though, taking the force of her attack and grabbing the back of her neck. He pressed the same pressure points and she felt her body go limp as her vision went dark. Before her hearing disappeared leaving her deaf, she heard the Oracle's last words.

"You broke me. Now I break you."

The Scientist fell into oblivion.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	21. Chapter 21: Importance of a Name

Joan heard the last few words of the man echoing in her ears when she awoke with a start. Her body flew upwards into a sitting position. Her lungs ached as they took in each and every breath. Her heart pounded inside of her and her head, keeping steady count of every second she had left before she was a slave to the Reach. Her body and clothes was drenched in sweat. She was soaked to the bone, but it was sticky, uncomfortable. It was as if her body had already begun to betray her.

Her eyes darted around, taking in every detail about her surrounding which were not her own. She saw the blindingly white walls and the tubes that went into her body. She looked down and saw the form of the Reach Scientist. Oh God. She was already one of them. She screamed.

She ripped out the tubes in her arms when a hand stopped her. She screamed again, resisting everything that said she was now a part of the Reach. She pushed the figure away and tried to get off the bed to discover that her body was much weaker than it was a few moments ago in her dream. But the hands persisted and stopped her. This time, she bothered to see who it was to claw their face.

It was Nightwing.

He was speaking in a soft and soothing voice. His hands rested on her shoulders trying to get her to focus on him. As the reality that she was still herself, still not a Reach, Joan began to cry. She buried her face in his chest and sobbed. Nightwing froze, but wrapped his arms wrapped around her. He continued to speak softly, saying it was all a bad dream. But as she sobbed, Joan knew one thing. It was more than a dream or a nightmare. It was her reality.

She felt something slimy slither up her right leg and Joan flinched, accidently kneeing Nightwing in the stomach. As he doubled over in shock, Joan saw that it was actually two things. They were alive, but not nearly as terrifying as she first thought. There were two little figures, smaller than a human child, perhaps four or five pounds. And they were nowhere remotely human. One had a dark red skin that reminded Joan of the wine her family used to drink during Christmas or business dinner. The other was a purply version of the other. They lay there side by side, and crawling towards Joan where they snuggled once again into her leg for warmth.

Joan turned her attention back to Nightwing who was coming back up. "Oh gosh, I'm-"

"Don't worry about it. I'm used to it by now. You know, I_ am_ a superhero."

Joan laughed playfully. She looked again at the creatures next to her. She hesitantly reach towards one of them and surprised that while they were slightly slimy, that was only from her own sweat. They were dry and scaly otherwise with little spikes running down their spine. They also had tails that were half their body length. One, the dark red one, braced itself against Joan's touch while the other recoiled. She smiled and looked at Nightwing. "What are they?"

Nightwing's face dropped. He looked over his shoulder to where Oracle and Tim were along with the body of the Reach Scientist. Joan saw the body and how Tim easily lifted it over his shoulder. Joan glanced from the body to Nightwing.

"She's... she's not..."

"She's alive. We're going to wipe her memories of this place then drop her off somewhere for the Reach to find her."

"Why not keep her? Interrogate her for information?"

"We made a promise. And I plan on keeping my word."

As he said those last few words pointedly, Joan sensed that something had happened while she was dreaming. She peeked at Nightwing who was glaring at Barbara who was glaring right back at him. Joan wondered what had happened and though she wanted to ask, she figured it was better to wait until later. She looked back at the little creatures. "So, what are these guys?"

"Her young. We though they were dead until a couple minutes ago when they managed to crawl up to you."

"They _were_ dead," Barbara said as she rolled up to them and Tim left the room after a nod from Nightwing. "I don't see why we're keeping them when you said you were going to honor the deal you made with that Reach. They were a part of the deal."

"The _egg_ was a part of the deal, and you shattered it right in front of her. So as far as she's concerned, they're dead. So it doesn't really matter, now does it?"

"Do we know what sex they?" Joan asked, trying to relieve the tension. She knew that something was going on, and wasn't completely sure whose side she should be on if at all.

"There isn't any of the usual human indicators of what gender they are, so we're not sure yet, but after a quick test, we should be able to figure that out."

"Names?" Joan had spent several months in one of her English classes before the invasion learning the importance of a name. She knew that without one, you were nothing. She knew how it defined someone. Joan had always loved her name with the exception of one or two weeks where she came up with a couple different names for herself. For her, her name meant everything to her. Joan always knew that if she ever lost her memory, her name would the first that she would find out. Because a name is who you are and who you are meant to be.

Nightwing looked at Joan before quickly looking back to the Reach newborns. Joan knew what he was thinking and she felt mixed feelings about it. "I didn't think about that," he said, but Joan knew what he was really thinking. It was so plain on his face. What he meant to say was _"We weren't going to give them names. It's easier to keep your distance that way._" And Joan knew with every fiber of her being that that was wrong.

"Can I name them? Everyone needs a name." Joan could only imagine what it might be like to not have a name. Who would someone be without a name? She looked imploringly at Nightwing, trying to use every ounce of her being to persuade him to let her name them. She almost laughed when she saw how uncomfortable he was. Nightwing looked desperately at Barbara who laughed out loud.

"You're the one who brought her here. You tell her that she can't," Barbara smiled devilishly before walking out of the room.

Nightwing glared, but looked back at Joan who had decided to give her saddest face ever. She made herself look like a child again which she knew that no one could ever say no too. Dang. Perhaps she was being just a little too manipulative. Nah. "What does Barbara mean we can't?"

"Ah, she means... she means that we can't give them human names." Nightwing tried to say. Joan giggled, her laughter filling the room.

"Really? That's the best excuse you can give me?" Joan sat up straight and shrugged off her childish demeanor. "I just want something to call them. Even Thing 1 and Thing 2 would work."

Nightwing sighed. Joan wasn't sure though whether it was from relief or not. He stood up and looked one last time at the little guys. He sighed again. This time, Joan knew it was from his inability to resist the adorableness. She smiled when she looked at them. They might be Reach, but they were pretty darn cute. Finally though, he turned back to her and said, "Fine. Just don't say anything around anyone else. And don't tell me either. I can't risk getting attached to anyone right now."

* * *

****Reivew! Follow! Favorite!****


	22. Chapter 22: Cry for Help

Nightwing had explained everything to her. He told her their theories about her powers and it scared her. He had tried to calm her, but despite his best efforts, nothing had worked. Joan thought she had hid her fear well, at the very least enough for him to drop it. He had led her back to her room after giving the twins to someone else that Joan had not recognized. They were to be looked upon and made sure they were healthy. Joan hoped that was the whole truth.

As she looked around her new room, Joan felt hopeless. Her feelings matched the dingy gray walls around her. The only furniture in the room was a bed that looked as if it had never had an occupant. There were two doors beside the one that led into the hallway. One was the small closet she got and the other led to her own bathroom. Joan set down her jacket, the only piece of clothing she had with her and walked into the bathroom. She looked at herself in the crystal clear mirror.

Her face was still a little pink, but it no longer looked burned. Her head was bare with the exception of the thin layer of fiery red fuzz. Joan rubbed her hand on the fuzz, enjoying how it felt on her hand. She still couldn't believe that her hair that had been blonde a week ago was now red. She wished it was a little longer. The new surprise though, more than her hair, was her eyes. Once they had been a green like her mom's, but now they were a stunning gold. They seemed to glow to in the bathroom light.

_"You will be ours..."_

Those words echoed inside her head as she watched herself transform into something inhuman. Her eyes glowed even brighter and her hair grew out, appearing as if it was on fire. Her skin went pale gray like smoke. She saw herself smiling. Her teeth were pointed and serrated as a shark's. A little red bird flew up onto her shoulder.

_"This is the true extent of what you will become..."_

Joan shrieked and freaked out, slapping the bird off her shoulder and turning around. Only to see that there was no bird. Breathing heavily, Joan looked back in the mirror. Her hair was still short, and her eyes golden, but she still looked human. She still looked as if she had a chance.

Joan washed her face and crawled into her unused bed. She slipped under the covers and stared at her ceiling. How would she tell anyone? How could she tell anyone? They would cast her out and treat her as the monster she was. So she had a year before that happened. So what? It didn't mean anything. It only meant that she had to watch as she became the demon and hurt everyone she loved.

She felt her eyes begin to burn with tears. Nightwing had asked her about why she had freaked out when she woke up, but again she had evaded him. Perhaps not convinced him, but evaded him. She wished she could have explained it to him at least. She thought about his reaction when she would finally turn Reach. And for some reason, that hurt her even more than the thought of serving those brutes. He would hate her. And there wasn't anything she could do. Except accept it.

_Accept it, Joan._

_You're one of them._

_You can never be human again._

_Accept it._

_Why can't you just accept it?_

Joan wiped her eyes and buried her face into her pillow. She couldn't just accept it. She had to fight it. Her heart told her to fight it. So why could she do nothing. She could not let this happen, but at the same time, she was powerless to help. She was powerless to do anything to prevent her fate.

As she assumed a fetal position and her mind entered the realm of dreams, she felt her heart begin to beat harder and harder. As she finally drifted off into sleep, an idea came to her mind. She could not fight this. She knew that. But could someone else fight it for her? Could someone else take over her mind and help her? Was it possible to never give up? She knew the answer. She knew someone could help her. She only needed to find out who.

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	23. Chapter 23: A Wedding to Attend

Artemis woke up feeling unusually warm in her bed. As her fluttered opened, she remembered everything within the last couple days. The new Young Justice recruit, the almost Reach invasion, the Reach soldier and her interrogation, and Wally's return, both from the the Reach and his earlier mission which was reported as a success. Artemis smiled as she remembered finally seeing him alive and well after his time with the Reach. She had pried him for questions, but in the end, she sensed that he'd rather not talk about it, so she let him be. She knew better than to pry for tight secrets. When the time came, he would tell her everything she needed to know. He always told her.

He was there with her, adding the extra heat under the covers which was why she was so warm. She had gotten used to sleeping on her own, she forgot how safe she felt whenever he was with her. As she watched him open his own eyes, she smiled again and kissed him gently on the cheek. He smiled, about to say hello, when Bart and M'gann came bursting through the door.

"Good morning, lovebirds!" Bart shouted in his most cheerful voice and extravagant pose. he seemed oblivious to the couple in bed. "Today's the big day! Now first on our agenda, we have makeup and dress for the lovely bride and preparations for the groom. You're too late for a bachelor party, Uncle Wally, though maybe-"

Wally groaned and hid under the covers, trying to block out his cousin. Bart watched a bunch of old black and white sitcoms before the Reach completely took over and somewhere picked up calling him Uncle Wally from one of them.

M'gann graciously came to the rescue though as she said, "Bart, let them at least get out of bed. They have a big day today!" M'gann nearly screamed with joy which made Artemis smile slightly at her friend's eagerness. Everyone had been waiting only too long for this wedding. "You have five minutes to get dressed, before we come and get you, ready or not."

As the two left with Bart pouting at his giant speech getting interrupted, Wally groaned again and stayed under the covers. Artemis got out of bed and quickly changed out of her dark green tank and black shorts into something more practical. She grabbed jeans and a t-shirt for Wally and tossed them at his head. "It's time to get up, Baywatch."

Wally came out from under the covers. He glared at Artemis who was ready with her hair pulled back before hiding underneath them once more. He made several groaning sounds which Artemis just chuckles at. She walked over and leaned near Wally's head. He peeked out from under the comforter, perhaps expecting something when Artemis grinned and ripped the bedding off the bed revealing Wally's Flash themed boxers. He made an inhuman sound as the cold air rushed against his skin while Artemis laughed. She tossed him his clothes once more.

"Do I have to get a bucket of water?" she asked.

Wally glared at her once more. "You wouldn't dare..."

Artemis smirked. "Wanna bet?"

Wally grudgingly got out of bed, knowing that she very well would. As he slipped into his jeans, he walked over to Artemis, kissing her gently on the forehead. "Are you sure about today?"

Artemis looked up into his luminous green eyes which she had always loved, even when she had thought she hated him. She placed a hand on his chest and the other behind his neck. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the lips teasingly. "Aren't you?"

Wally smiled. "I just wanted to check. Today is a big day for us. I want to make sure we're ready for something like this before we dive into it. My parents were always drilling into my head that the woman I married would be my wife for the rest of my life so I had to be sure of myself. I never wanted to wake up in twenty years and wonder what if."

"Wally, we've been together for over seven years. I think we're ready."

Wally kissed his bride smiling. "You will make a beautiful wife."

* * *

Joan heard knocking at her door as the remnants of her dream faded away. She couldn't remember the dream, only knew it was important. She knew that there had been someone there, and their face was on the edge of her mind, but everything else had vanished. She sighed, only knowing the certainty she felt and how she wished she could still feel like that in her waking hours. As she rubbed the last droplets of sleep out of her eyes, she felt that similar feeling of dread and fear from the earlier that night settle into her heart.

Slowly, she got out of the bed and opened her door. Nightwing was there, dressed in a full on tuxedo with a white rose in his front pocket. He looked dashing, creating butterflies in Joan's stomach as she realized how handsome Nightwing was, especially without his mask on. He smiled charmingly and Joan thought he looked... happy. Genuinely happy about something. Joan saw the pale yellow like candlelight dress he had in the crook of his arm. Joan glanced from him, to the dress and back to him.

"Put this on. You have a wedding to attend."

He handed her the dress and walked away, leaving Joan extremely confused. A wedding? Whose wedding? It wasn't hers because the dress wasn't white, but why had... Joan shook her head. She showered quickly, marveling at the fact that she didn't really have to wash her hair with so little of it. Still, it felt good having hot water run down her head and body. As she got out and quickly slipped the dress on, she noticed how well it fit on her. As if it had been especially tailored only for her. She felt it hug her curves and showed them off in a the most flattering way possible. It draped down her legs with a long slit coming up to her left thigh. It had one strap over her right shoulder. Joan looked at herself in the mirror. Once more, she no longer felt like herself. But as she looked closer, her face no longer changed into that inhuman monster. Instead, she saw something different. She saw herself as who she could be.

It was a welcome relief to see that. She saw a powerful woman with pride and strength. She saw a little of her mother in her younger years, though the person in the mirror was much more intimidating and if Joan was being honest, beautiful. She saw the person she would have been if not for the curse on her. Joan smiled softly. She wished she could be that person.

She left the room to see Nightwing standing out there, leaning against the wall. He was smiling cockily as his eyes ran up and down her body. Joan felt very much like herself once more with his eyes on her, but as she remembered the person in the mirror, she smiled coyly. "Expecting something?"

Nightwing glanced back at her eyes, but did not hold her gaze. "Just admiring my handiwork."

Joan nearly choked. "Wait, you made this?"

He laughed. "Hardly. I simply got your measurements right. I can always tell a girl's measurements."

Joan stared, unsure of how to take his answer. It was a relief he didn't make this dress, but it was still unnerving that he had guessed her measurements so well. He noticed her wariness and chuckled. "Come on, we have a wedding to get to," he said as he offered his arm.

"Whose wedding?" Joan asked, eying the arm carefully before taking it and continuing down the hall.

"The Kid Idiot, Wally, you saved, and Artemis, his fiancee who is simply too beautiful for him."

Joan smiled. The two of them joked through the dingy hallways until the reached the double doors. Nightwing explained that behind them was the Heart of the Mountain, the only place that resembles the Old World before the Reach. It's the only place that feel remotely like home. And when he opened the doors, Joan nearly choked again upon what her eyes were telling her.

All around her were giant redwood trees. She had studied them as a child, but seeing them for herself was truly belittling. She had heard of their enormity, but never believed it until she saw the monstrous trees all around her. She walked up to one, completely bewildered by them. She saw that even if twenty of her spread their arms around the trunk of one, they would not reach all the way around. And this was one of the smaller ones. And the ground was filled with lush green grass. Joan sat down and felt it between her fingers. She laid down and spread her arms out, laughing. It had been so long since she had felt real grass.

Nightwing was smiling at her. He knew how much joy it would give her. He walked over to her and offered her a hand up. She smiled sheepishly as she got up smoothing out her dress. She followed him to where several chaired were set up and several young adults and teenagers were hanging out talking and dressed in formal attire. A few were taking their seats. There were a three young children around with their parents, but the oldest looked to be almost three while the others, most likely twins, looked maybe half that. As Nightwing pointed towards a seat for Joan to sit in, he walked back to where others were. They were all dressed the same. The same tuxes, the same dresses. Joan guessed they were the bridesmaids and groomsmen. Joan saw Barbara there in her wheelchair and her dress was slightly different. Probably to accommodate her chair, Joan thought. But before she could speculate further, the music began to play.

Joan watched as the maids and man walked down together. Joan felt a tinge of jealousy, but let it slide after seeing Nightwing and Barbara walk down together as maid of honor and best man, but it left quickly. As soon as everyone was all lined up, everyone stood up. Joan turned around. Her heart melted.

Artemis had a simple white dress with slight beading upon the top. It was a strapless sweetheart neckline. The dress trailed behind her without dirtying on the ground. She walked down the aisle on her own with all the pride a woman could have. She walked neither too quickly, nor too slowly. Her hair was down, covering her shoulders in flowing golden locks. Her makeup was minimal, but it was exceptionally done. Her gray eyes looked brighter, her lips fuller, her cheeks flusher. The overall effect was that of an angel walking on the ground.

As Artemis walked up to Wally, Joan saw pure joy on both of their faces. They faced each other, ready for the ceremony to begin. Then, to Joan's surprise and as she was wondering where the preacher was, Nightwing left the line of groomsmen and took up a place in between the two. He smiled and spoke.

"Friends, teammates, we have gathered here today..." Joan watched as Nightwing conducted the ceremony with ease and eloquence. His voice resonated throughout the forest and everyone could hear clearly. Joan couldn't stop smiling, especially when Nightwing called the couple to speak their vows. Joan started to cry from the beauty of it.

"Wally, throughout my life, there never was consistency. My family was barely there for, especially when I needed. But you," Artemis began to cry. Wally smiled and gently wiped the tears away. "You were always there for me. You always understood me and never judged me. You have never let me down. My life was incomplete until I met you and now, with you, I finally feel complete. I'm finally happy."

"Artemis" Wally likewise seemed like about to cry. "When we first met, I was knocked off my feet. Literally. I have never been so embarrassed. I remembering thinking that all I had done was ruin my chances with the prettiest girl I had ever seen. And now I'm marrying her. I am marrying the most beautiful, wonderful, amazing, incredible, strong-"

"Wally, keep it short. We still have the buffet waiting," nightwing joked. Everyone laughed, especially when Wally's eyes got noticeably wide.

"-woman I have ever known. And I am proud to call you my wife. I am proud that I get to be the one to spend the rest of my life with you. Artemis, I love you. More than you could ever know."

Artemis began to cry. Wally's eyes were looking wet, but Joan wasn't sure. Nightwing was smiling wide and he finished quickly. "Artemis Crock, do you take this man, Wallace West to be your lawfully wedded husband?"

"I do." Artemis tried not to giggle at Wally's full name like everyone else in the room. Wally was irked and shot a glance at Nightwing, but his attention went immediately back to Artemis.,

"Wallace West, do you take this woman, Artemis Crock, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

Joan was sure Wally was crying now. "Then I now pronounce you, man and wife. Wally, you may kiss the bride."

The kiss that followed was passionate. It was filled with memories and happiness and pain and pure bliss to finally be joined as one soul. Joan found herself envious of the love the two shared and wished for the first time that she could enjoy something as powerful as that. For her, there was no doubt in her mind that these two would be happy until the end, that they would grow old together and start a family. There was no doubt to Joan that this was true love at its purest.

The rest of the night proceeded as most weddings do. With lots of food, merriment, and dancing. Everyone had a good time. No one was sitting down waiting for a partner for too long. And as the evening ended, Joan almost wished that could have a full minute at the very least to rest her feet. But, as the last song for the night was playing, and the bride and groom took up their slow dance, everyone followed suit. And who other than Nightwing would come up to her and offer his hand.

"May I have the honor of this dance?"

Joan smiled. "You're practically Prince Charming. Why don't you have a princess waiting for you?" She took his hand and followed him to the dance floor. He grabbed her by the waist and she placed her arms over his shoulders. Joan could not remember the last time she had danced with a boy other than her brother. Actually, she had probably never danced with a boy before. She had only attended one of her old school dances and she had stood awkwardly in a corner for most of it.

"I'm waiting for the right princess," he said as he began to waltz.

"Aw, sweet. How did you learn to dance?" Joan had trouble following him, stepping on his feet most of the time. She glanced down at his feet constantly to make sure that she was almost getting the hang of it.

The words seem stuck in Nightwing's throat. "My... Technically, he was my butler. He was more like a grandfather to me. He was always so much more." Joan saw his face turn stony. She knew there was something else there. She opened her mouth to ask about it, when he continued. "But for my senior prom, he taught me how to waltz. It was slow and tedious and he often commented how I had hit my head one too many times during my other life as Robin when I was younger-"

"Wait, you were Robin? The same one who saved me?"

And it hit her. Joan almost felt stupid how plain and obvious it was. Now, without his mask on, she could see all too clearly how much he resembled the Robin who had saved her life He had the same eyes, the same cheekbones, the same black shaggy hair. He was the man who had saved her life, the man whom she had fantasized about as a teenage girl. The man who she thought she would never have been able to thank. And here he was, right before her, dancing with her, and she had not known it until now.

Nightwing grinned crookedly.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Joan was feeling very, very stupid at that moment.

"You never asked."

Joan smirked, angry at him for not telling her and desperately trying to resist the urge to laugh for saying such a retort. Only Henry could have said that and gotten away with it. Now, she was unsure what to do, what to say.

"I supposed thank you isn't really enough."

"It doesn't really matter. I've save hundreds of people. To me, it was just another day on the job."

Joan growled at him, but continued dancing. Her feet no longer stepped on his. Their bodies, their minds, were in perfect sync. She no longer glanced down to make sure she was doing it correctly. She simply followed him.

* * *

When Joan got back to her room, she was exhausted again. Both physically and emotionally. She had eventually asked Nightwing why he had invited her, and he said that it was for morale. They had taped and broadcasted the wedding to every Young Justice base across the world. The more people, the better it looked. It helped show everyone that the Reach had not gotten to them just yet. It spread happiness and courage to everyone. More importantly though, he said, it brought everyone hope.

Joan had let down her hair and changed out of the dress into something more comfortable when she heard another knock at the door. Groaning from exhaustion, she opened it to see Barbara sitting there, still beautied up from the wedding.

"Barbara, hey. Come in." Joan opened the door wide for Barbara to roll through.

"No need. I'm just going to say something really quick, then be on my way."

"What is it?" Joan became a little worried, like she was in trouble for something that she hadn't even done.

"I'm not sure if you've noticed or if you're even aware, but I know you like Dick. And he seems to reciprocate those feelings."

"What?" Dick? Did she mean Nightwing? Was that his real name? And why did he have feelings for her? How could he have feelings for her?

"Wow, you can be thick sometimes." Barbara sighed and thought for a moment before continuing. "I'm warning you now. Getting into a relationship with someone, especially Dick, at this point in history, is a really bad idea. I know, I've been there. I was in the exact same position as you not too long ago. And it brought me nothing but pain. It brought me heartbreak of something that you can't even possibly understand yet. And Dick? He involves himself with women. I won't even tell you the number of girlfriends he has had. But he does know love. And if you lead him on, I know that he will fall in love with you. At that point, he becomes committed. Nothing will get in his way between the two of you. He becomes serious. He gets this mindset that you need him as much as he needs you. And when you take that away from him, he becomes broken. He will heal, over time, but not without a lot of time and glue and scars."

Joan felt overwhelmed by what Barbara was saying. "What are you getting at?"

"Break his heart, I will kill you. I will not let him him be put through the same heartbreak I put-" Barbara stopped speaking.

"What did you do?"

Barbara swallowed. A tear formed at the corner of her eye and fell down her cheek. "I was pregnant. And in the same accident that caused me to lose use of my legs also led me to miscarriage. Dick never knew. And that is why you cannot break his heart. If you can fix what I've done, then go for it. Fix him. But if you shatter him, and truly break him, then I will make sure you feel every ounce of pain he does. Do _not_ hurt Dick, Joan."

* * *

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	24. Chapter 24: A Visitor in a Dream

_"Do not hurt him, Joan."_

One more command, one more rule, one more law to follow in her life. Joan watched as Barbara left before closing the door. Her gait was calm, but her heart was beating erratically. Her mind was running across her existence as a frightened horse, trying to find a way out of her fate. She could hurt Nightwing. How could she do that if she was the tool of the Reach to become the conquerors that they believed they were? How could she get close to him now? Joan walked into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. The girl who faced her was the same one as earlier. She was beautiful. But she was not Joan.

Joan took off the dress that he had given to her. She looked at herself for what she really was. She was not who he thought her for. This drove a knife into her heart. Even now, she was already hurting him. So long as she lied to herself, she was lying to him. Joan looked to where her heart was. Such a fickle thing. She barely knew him, yet it already had fallen for him. She wasn't even sure when it happened, but it had. Maybe within the last day, maybe when she first saw him. But regardless, it had happened. And now? She was the one getting hurt.

She looked once more at her body. She had never hated it, but now, knowing about the gene inside her, she wished it would burn. She wished the fever had burned every part of herself. She wished she could go up in flames to escape the pain. She felt her eyes burning, but it wasn't her powers. It was tears. She put on the clothes she had brought and sat on her bed.

She laid down on her back, wishing her end would finally come.

* * *

_"Don't wish for that."_

_Joan spun around, suddenly finding herself gazing over the edge of precipice of a mountain. She screamed, losing her balance, finding herself about to fall. She screamed, only to find herself hovering at a horizontal plane. She was facing straight down towards the crashing blue ocean below. Her eyes darted back and forth, absorbing the information her body was telling her, though it made little sense. She was flat yet nothing was underneath her. Trippy, she thought._

_Her body slow rose back up to a standing position on the edge of the cliff. As her feet landed on solid ground, she spun around to see a boy. His hair was blonde, shaved on the bottom, and his skin was pale at the sunlight. His eyes were a bright blue much like the ocean below. He had several gauges and a lip ring. He was smiling slightly with his arms crossed; a blue tribal tattoo covered one bicep. Amusement was written all over his face._

_"And don't fall," he said._

_"What?" Joan's brow scrunched up whilst her body became defensive. "Who are you?"_

_"You can call me Terry. I saved you. I'm the one projecting myself into your dream."_

_"You can do that?" Joan asked incredulously. She felt as if she should be expecting events like this by now after joining Young Justice, but this was still weird. In her dream?_

_"I can do many things. But that is not why I am contacting you."_

_Joan looked at the boy in front of her. He couldn't have been older than she was, yet he carried so much more authority in his voice. Even how he stood made him seem as if he knew everything that he needed to know and with such a certainty that Joan was envious of. Lately, she didn't even know her own mind and body, yet this boy knew his own with a deeper understanding that she thought she could have ever achieved. "Why, then? Why are you contacting me through my dreams?"_

_"Because when you are awake, you refuse to listen to him," the voice came from the side. A silver bird almost identical to the one Joan knew flew out onto the branches. It's voice was more feminine, yet it carried a certain weight and depth that made it seem like neither male nor female. It smiled despite the limitation of its beak._

_Upon seeing the bird, Joan instantly felt the heat around her. She tried to focus it on the bird. She felt it traveling through her as she tried to direct it towards the bird that she had come to associate with evil. Instead of the bird though, the branch caught on fire, causing the bird to fly away to another branch and watch the flames. Joan stared at what she did, wondering if this was what her metagene could do that everyone had spoken so highly of._

_"That was just rude," the bird commented, still gazing into the flames. Joan turned her focus back to the bird, then to the boy. "You could have at least tried to control your temper."_

_"Who are you?"_

_"I told you. My name is-"_

_"Not your name! Who are you?" Joan asked. She had a sickening feeling that she was being played. She glanced backwards, only to be reminded of the cliff edge behind her, preventing her from backing away. She glared at the boys and the bird._

_"Who do you think, Joan?" Another voice came from the other side. It was the same bird who had haunted Joan earlier during her nightmares. She gritted her teeth, not even trying to control her temper and the sudden anger she felt. She felt all the confusion, madness, pain from the last two days all come forward. This time, she was more successful in using her powers. The bird's feathers caught on fire. However, simultaneously, Joan's arm caught fire. She screamed and the flames disappeared. The bird smiled. "Nice try, Joan. But I am a part of you. You cannot hurt me without hurting yourself. But congratulations on learning your powers."_

_Joan shouted with frustration. Her fists clenched and unclenched. The grass around her smoldered. She looked back at the boy. "WHO ARE YOU?!" She shouted. She was done with the games. She was done with wondering why. She wanted answers. She wanted to know why she was suffering._

_"I am like you." Joan's heart stopped at those words. They were the same ones that Nightwing had whispered to her all those years ago when he was still just Robin. The boy read her thoughts. "No, I am not him. Nor could I reciprocate the feelings you have towards the man in the mask." He smiled in a soft way. "No, my feelings are for someone else."_

_Joan looked around her, trying to distract herself from her situation. "You are a servant of the Reach?"_

_"Not yet. Like you, I still have a year before I completely turn. My bird found me a couple days ago. Since then, my metagene has gone absolutely off the charts."_

_Joan grinned slightly. "Same too. I nearly blew up a mountain." That was the one thing she got clearly from Nightwing. She also heard how her powers worked, but since she had only taken two years of high school and only a minimal amount of science before the Reach came, she never understood what she was actually saying._

_Terry smiled. "When I was first... changed, you were the first presence I felt inside my mind. I was always on the telepathic side; it's why the Reach first took me. But before now, I never knew how far they could really go. So when I truly awoke, I tried to cut off everything so I could hear my own thoughts for once. But one mind stood out to me. Yours. During that time, you stood out like a light to me. And during that time, I felt strength. I felt someone who wanted to fight back, like my friend and I. I knew, that even though you were about to have everything stripped from you, you were still strong. That's what I needed at that moment. And here I am. making sure you stay strong."_

_Terry looked at Joan. "While the birds here disagree and have been trying to block every attempt I have of contacting you, I want to fight back with you. I want to take down the Reach with everything we've got. I'm going to take these suckers down, even if it kills me. Will you help me Joan? Please?"_

_Joan turned around, trying to swallow what the boy was telling her. She thought about what he was asking her. To fight the Reach, to hit them where it really hurt. But that was why she joined Young Justice. That was why she needed to stay with them. Joan turned back to the boy. "I appreciate the offer, but I have my own team to fight for. You might have heard of them. Young Justice."_

_"The rebellion?" The boy's eyes widened and there was approval in his grin now. "At least you're doing something. My friend and I have mostly been raiding Reach transports. Our next job is up where Berlin used to be. We'll be hanging out around there for a little while. If you change your mind, then you know where to find us."_

_"This is the third time you've mentioned someone other than yourself. Who is your friend? Do they know about what you are changing into?"_

_Terry's smile fell. "Her name is Taylor. And no. She doesn't."_

_The boy walked away and disappeared along with the landscape around them._

* * *

Joan woke up with a start, not even aware she had fallen asleep. She groaned. She had been sleeping way too much. She spent way too long moping around and feeling sorry for herself. While Terry had said that she had given him strength to keep going, Joan knew that it was Terry who had given her strength. He had given her what she had needed. He had given her hope.

She was going to give it all she got.

A knock at the door and Joan stood up. She hoped it was Nightwing so he could help her start training and understand her powers better. She had never used them before except in her dreams. She almost thought that whatever that Reach soldier did to her would be permanent. She knew that it wasn't now. She could feel the energy around her. She could feel it so clearly. She kept it away from her body as she opened the door. She felt as if she might have a chance now to finally get some honest work done.

Nightwing was there to her heart's happiness. She beamed until she saw his grim face. His eyes were broken and his face was stiff. Joan instinctively took a step backwards, not wanting to hear whatever bad news he had for her. His voice cracked as he tried to speak.

"Your family is dead."

* * *

**Author's Note: I AM SO SORRY IT HAS TAKEN ME SO LONG TO UPDATE! Actually, it's only been two weeks is I'm rigt, and that's not too bad, but I feel awful because like the past couple of chapters, I have just been staring at my document, trying to write, but finding it almost impossible. If anyone, and I mean ****_anyone_**** has any ideas for the future, please tell me! I would love to hear what you guys think.**

**Anyways... credit to Shadowsofthenightsky for creating Terry. He is working so much better than I ever thought and I'm going to apologize now that he was just a little chatty in chapter. He'll hopefully quiet down later.**

****Review! Follow! Favorite!****


	25. Chapter 25: Part of the Deal

Joan was sitting the back compartment of the Reach ship that she and Wally had taken about a week ago. Her face was stoic. Nightwing had found the tracker in the ship which was how the Reach had nearly found them in the beginning. It was impossible to remove so he had decided that they would take the ship to Joan's house. When the Reach found the ship, there would only be the charred remains of her home.

She held the tears back as they flew. Only a handful of members would be accompanying them. Wondergirl, Nightwing, Beast Boy, and Kaldur. They would accompany her back home, trying to figure out what had caused her house, and her family to simply be wiped off the map.

Nightwing had explained to her that an agent had tried to find the house to give them the information they needed to be a safehouse. When he arrived, the agent thought he had had the wrong house. There was only scorched earth. Only burned remains of the house were left. There were three bodies in the remains. Two adults and one child. Nightwing hadn't told her what had happened to them, but when pressed, he said that it appeared as if they were burned alive. He wasn't sure the details, hence the team traveling there.

"Are you okay?" Beast Boy came into the back and sat down next to Joan. While the team had been talking up front about how they would find the real reason for what had happened, Joan had been sitting on her own, trying to understand the storm inside her. She had never expected to go back home, at least not for a while. And here she was, a little over a week later, going back home. But not because she wanted to. Because she had to.

Joan didn't bother to look at Beast Boy. She didn't want to talk to anyone. She sat in silence, waiting for him to go away like Nightwing had when he had asked. But Beast Boy didn't. He stayed put.

"I understand what you're going through," he said, seemingly not to directly address anyone. "Queen Bee killed my mom. I don't think I've ever forgiven her for that, even though it happen three years ago and Bee is dead. I don't know if I ever will. But it's not the fact that she killed my mom that hurts the most. It's that I never got to tell my mom how much I loved her. You see, before Bee got my mom, we had had a huge fight. I was changing because of the blood transfusion M'gann gave me. That's another story. Anyways, she was mad because I was being reckless because of the changes. I still couldn't control it, so I did things without meaning to, and well, one thing led to another and I broke the glass figurine of a rose that my dad had given my mom before he disappeared.

"We fought. We both said things that were never meant to be said." Beast Boy looked down at his hands. A small tear fell his right eye onto his palms in his lap. "I called her a horrid old witch with no soul. I didn't mean it, but I said it." The tears began to flow more easily now, yet his voice stayed strong. It did not waver, it did not falter. Not once. "I never said I was sorry. And now, because of Queen Bee, I never can."

Joan began to feel her own tears burning in her eyes. She refused to let them fall, but Beast Boy's story still pierced her in the heart. She knew that feeling of guilt. She had once pushed Henry off the swings one day and broke his ankle. It was in the heat of rage. She couldn't even remember what had made her so angry. He had gotten an infection afterwards that left his fighting for his life. She remembered the agonizing days waiting for Henry to pull through so she could tell his how sorry she was. The only difference between her story and Beast Boy's was that she got that chance. He never did. She couldn't imagine living with that guilt for the days, let alone years.

"I know what it's like to lose a family member. My dad, then my mom. I almost lost M'gann, my blood sister. I almost lost my friends on Young Justice a couple times. It hurts every time you lose someone and it never gets easier. They say it does, but the only difference is you can say their name without shattering inside.

"But that's what it means to be a part of the team. That's what it means to be a part of a family. We hate ourselves when we lose someone. We break."

"Sometimes, I wonder if it's worth it," Joan interrupted, voicing her greatest fear. "All I seem to do is bring pain, in one form or another. I know that I will continue to bring pain to those I care about most. It's my fate. I don't want to hurt anyone. So why does it keep on happening?" The last question was meant to go unanswered, but Beast Boy answered it anyways, lighting a small flicker of flame inside Joan.

"Because we're a family," Beast Boy said, scooting right next to her. "Pain is part of the deal. We live through it because we have each other. That's why it's worth it. Because in the end, everything that fate puts us through, is nothing because we will always have each other."

Joan looked at Beast Boy. He was fifteen and she was almost nineteen, yet he sounded many years older than her. He sounded as if he knew everything there was to know about life. Beast Boy glanced back at her, smiling goofily, showing his crooked teeth. Joan giggled, showing a smile for the first time in a while.

Nightwing looked back. He grinned crookedly. Beast Boy had done his job well. Joan was no longer sulking in the back on her own. At least she knew she was not alone. As Beast Boy helped Joan up, Nightwing felt something in his chest like disappointment. Garfield had done what he was unable to do. He had connected with Joan.

Nightwing looked away and back to ahead of them. He wondered what he was thinking. He had only met Joan little over a week ago. So why was she having such an effect on him? Because she saved his life? Because he saved hers? She had done the same thing back when he had first saved her. For days afterwards, he thought about her. He had no clue who she was, but she kept on intruding into his thoughts. What was it about her that was driving him insane?

He inhaled deeply, trying to focus his mind. He was about to go back and talk to Joan himself, when he saw it. Her old house. Or rather, what was left of it...

* * *

**Author's Note: This was originally supposed to be longer, but then it kind of got sidetracked and yeah... More will be explained later. I was kind of hoping to get some feedback form you guys on something. Would you guys rather have a bunch of short chapters posted relatively frequently, at least once a week, or longer chapter, but come out less frequently? And I am thinking about finally getting a beta reader. PM me if you're interested. I definitely need one right now. Also, if you guys have any ideas about where I should go with this story, please share! I love getting help from you guys!**


End file.
